Sunflowers Symbol of Hope at Tower of Voices Memorial

By Jill Brooke

U.S.  First Responders Association shared this photo which is of the Tower of Voices at the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, Somerset County.

Standing 93 feet high, it features a wind chime for each of the courageous 40 individuals who died on Flight 93 when the hijacked plane crashed in the field on that fateful day.  It’s often quite windy there at the 2,200-acre park and the sound of those wind chimes is breathtakingly beautiful. If you have a chance, visit the Flight 93 Memorial and never forget what happened on that tragic day.

The plane crashed into that filed in Somerset County, Pennsylvania during an attempt by the passengers and crew to regain control from the hijackers. It was flying from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco, California.

As we learned later, the intended target was the U.S. Capitol Building.

I was in NYC when the planes hit and caused many people I know to become widows that day. Milestones like these are important to remember. It is still eerie for me to hear the names of all those who perished that day and hear the names of so many cultures forever linked together into the tapestry of New York and the America I love. Multi-culturalism at its best.

The flowers growing at this memorial make you feel hopeful that lessons are learned and those heroes didn’t die in vain.

In the language of flowers, the darkness in the middle of a sunflower represents that there will be sadness but from it springs beauty and hope.