At 9/11 memorial, new recognition for a longer-term toll

In this Thursday, Aug. 29, 2019, photo a visitor touches one of the granite slabs at the 9/11 Memorial Glade at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York. When the names of nearly 3,000 Sept. 11 victims are read aloud Wednesday, Sept. 11 at the World Trade Center, a half-dozen stacks of stone will quietly salute an untold number of people who aren’t on the list. The granite slabs were installed on the memorial plaza this spring. They recognize an initially unseen toll of the 2001 terrorist attacks: firefighters, police and others who died or fell ill after exposure to toxins unleashed in the wreckage. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

By Associated Press September 11, 2019 5 min read

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Sept. 11 memorials

The Tribute in Light rises above the lower Manhattan skyline, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2019 in New York. Wednesday marks the 18th anniversary of the terror attacks against the United States of Sept. 11, 2001. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

A woman looks at the north pool of the September 11 Memorial, Monday, Sept. 9, 2019 in New York. Wednesday marks the 18th anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

FILE - In this May 30, 2019 file photo, a rose rests next to a photograph of New York City Fire Department Lt. Steven Reisman in the 9/11 Memorial Glade near the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. Reisman searched through the World Trade Center debris for remains, and then died in 2014 of brain cancer at age 54. When the names of nearly 3,000 Sept. 11 victims are read aloud Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, at the World Trade Center, a half-dozen stacks of stone will quietly salute an untold number of people who aren’t on the list. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

*** HOLD FOR STORY BY JENNIFER PELTZ*** FILE- In this May 30, 2019 file photo, Tina Tilearcio pauses at a stone that is part of the new 9/11 Memorial Glade on the grounds of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, after its dedication ceremony in New York Her husband, Robert Tilearcio, died in 2017 of illness related to his recovery work at ground zero. When nearly 3,000 Sept. 11 victims’ names are read aloud on the memorial plaza on Sept. 11, 2019, a half-dozen stacks of stone On the 9/11 Memorial Glade will quietly salute an untold number of people who aren’t on the list. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Norma Molina, of San Antonio, Texas, leaves flowers by the names of firefighters from Engine 33 at the September 11 Memorial, Monday, Sept. 9, 2019, in New York. Her boyfriend Robert Edward Evans, a member of Engine 33, was killed in the north tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Visitors to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa., participate in a sunset memorial service on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2019, as the nation prepares to mark the 18th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

FILE- In this Sept. 9, 2015 file photo, visitors look at the waterfalls at the World Trade Center Memorial in New York. As they have done 17 times before, a crowd of victims’ relatives is expected at the site on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019 to observe the anniversary the deadliest terror attack on American soil. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

A visitor to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa., views the Wall of Names on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2019, as the nation prepares to mark the 18th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

New York Fire Department members attend a second funeral service for FDNY firefighter Michael Haub in Franklin Square, N.Y., Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2019. The firefighter from New York's Long Island who died in the World Trade Center attacks is being remembered for a second time on the eve of the 18th anniversary of 9/11. Friends and family gathered at the memorial service for Haub on Tuesday in Franklin Square. Last week, the New York City medical examiner identified more of his remains recovered at ground zero. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

FILE - In this Sept. 11, 2001, file photo, smoke rises from the burning twin towers of the World Trade Center after hijacked planes crashed into the towers in New York City. Sept. 11 victims’ relatives are greeting the news of President Donald Trump’s now-canceled plan for secret talks with Afghanistan’s Taliban insurgents with mixed feelings. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

In this Thursday, Aug. 29, 2019, photo a detail of one of the granite slabs and the steel from the original World Trade Center is seen at the 9/11 Memorial Glade at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York. When the names of nearly 3,000 Sept. 11 victims are read aloud Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, at the World Trade Center, a half-dozen stacks of stone will quietly salute an untold number of people who aren’t on the list. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

FILE - In this Sept. 11, 2001 file photo, firefighters work beneath the destroyed mullions, the vertical struts which once faced the soaring outer walls of the World Trade Center towers, after a terrorist attack on the twin towers in New York. Families of the victims of the worst terror attack on the United States in history gathered Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2013, to mark their 12th anniversary with a moment of silence and the reading of names. The Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York City and Washington killed almost 3,000 people and lead to a war in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

FILE- In this May 15, 2015 file photo, visitors gather near the pools at the 9/11 Memorial in New York. As they have done 17 times before, a crowd of victims’ relatives is expected at the site on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019 to observe the anniversary the deadliest terror attack on American soil. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

NEW YORK – When the names of nearly 3,000 Sept. 11 victims are read aloud Wednesday at the World Trade Center, a half-dozen stacks of stone will quietly salute an untold number of people who aren’t on the list.

The granite slabs were installed on the memorial plaza this spring. They recognize an initially unseen toll of the 2001 terrorist attacks: firefighters, police and others who died or fell ill after exposure to toxins unleashed in the wreckage.

The unusual addition reflects a memorial that is evolving as the aftermath of 9/11 does. And for families like Joanna Reisman’s, the new 9/11 Memorial Glade gives their loved ones a place in the landscape of remembrance at ground zero.

A firefighter’s widow, she emphasizes that the losses thousands of families suffered on Sept. 11 were horrific.

“We just have to recognize that there were others, too,” says Reisman, whose 54-year-old husband, Lt. Steven Reisman, searched through the World Trade Center debris for remains, and then died in 2014 of brain cancer. He was 54.