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Mothers grieve for children lost on 9/11

By Summie Hazlewood and Pete Bowles | Staff Writers

Both still feel the pain, but Lillian Tetreault of Providence, R.I., and Mary Fetchet of New Canaan, Conn., said they will feel a sense of peace Saturday when they read the names of children they lost three years ago in the terror attack on the World Trade Center.

"It never gets easy," said Tetreault, whose daughter, Rene Tetreault Newell, 37, was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11 when it slammed into the north tower. "I figure I'm going to wake up, and see her walking the streets and say to me, 'What are you doing here?' That's why I come to New York."

"I feel very raw still," said Fetchet, whose son, Brad Fetchet, 24, an acquisition trader, died on the 89th floor of the south tower. "Because you are a community, you tend to overlook that you have suffered an individual loss."

The two mothers were among a number of family members who gathered Friday at the New York Marriott Financial Center near Ground Zero to share a common grief before Saturday's memorial observance.

At the ceremony, parents and grandparents -- working in pairs and reading 14 names each -- will recite the roll of dead of Sept. 11, 2001.

"It's such a complicated process, grieving for our families," said Fetchet, founding executive director of Voices of Sept. 11, a family advocacy group that arranged Friday's meeting. "We received very little remains, if any remains at all. You can't really feel any sense of closure ... you never get over it."

Tetreault, 72, has suffered three heart attacks since her daughter died, including one on Sept. 10, 2002, that caused her to miss the first anniversary service at Ground Zero. But she traveled here for last year's event.

"It's nice coming back, sharing with these people who are all in the same situation," she said, trying to hold back tears. "Sharing the grief that never ends."

Tetreault mentioned the near completion of a permanent memorial in Warwick, R.I., for six victims with ties to that state, including her daughter, a customer service representative for American Airlines who resided in Cranston, R.I. "I appreciate what has been done in Rhode Island, but to me Rene is here," Tetreault said. "After she died, I said New York, take care of her. She is a resident now."