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Brian Lehrer: Listeners, we have one more 9/11-related segment to do before we turn the page and that's a call-in. That is to let you call us up and go on the radio to tell people what you do to honor lives on 9/11 22 years ago. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. As a city, there are quite a few rituals that we perform on this day each year. If you were listening to the show earlier, you heard the moments of silence at the times the towers collapsed and other key moments from that day.

The 9/11 memorial and museum has been holding its annual remembrance ceremony that includes those moments of silence and also the reading of the names of the victims from that day being read aloud but there are other things that people do, things that might just be personal to you that are not part of any public ceremony at all that you do in honor of someone who was lost that day or anything else you do as an act of service that you may have been inspired to do because of 9/11.

That's why we want to open up the phones to let you say out loud right now. Do you have any personal ritual or do you partake in any public ritual that honors the losses of 9/11 or the spirit of the United States of America that we hope forthcomes from 9/11 22 years ago today? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Maybe you just visit somebody's grave or dedicated shrine, maybe you attend a religious service for an individual victim or the victims writ large of 9/11.

Maybe you eat their favorite meal or donate to a cause that your loved one cared about. Perhaps your family host a yearly party at their favorite place to remember the good times with your lost loved ones. Where do you go? What do you eat? How do you pray? 212-433-WNYC. It's possible that some of you honor those lost on 9/11 just by going to work every day. Did 9/11 inspire you to go down a certain career path? This show has been going on since before that day and so we certainly took a lot of calls in the years immediately after 9/11, 2001, on how that changed people's lives and changed their relationship with their lives and their goals, and that includes their career.

If you were a child when this tragedy occurred, did you decide to become a firefighter, an EMT, a police officer after witnessing the bravery of the first responders on that day or join the military or something in social services, or if you were an adult at that time, did the event push you to change careers? Maybe if your loved one was a first responder, let's say, or somebody in the health professions, did you decide to follow in their footsteps in their honor?

Here's an example. On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, so two years ago, firefighters in Chicago climbed thousands of steps in remembrance of the firefighters who lost their lives that day, quite literally following in their footsteps as they were climbing up the steps of the World Trade Center towers when they collapsed. Is this a ritual you've participated in? Tell us about that experience or any thoughts and feelings that you have today tied to any annual activity, ritual, whatever you want to call it, that you partake in on September 11th in honor of anybody or just the greater idea of it. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.

Let's start with Nicole on City Island in the Bronx. Nicole, you're on WNYC. Thank you so much for calling in.

Nicole: Hi, Brian. On September 12th, I went down to Stuyvesant High School because I heard that's where base relief services were being administered. I went in and volunteered to help out with food services, something I knew something about. When I got there, I was unloading donation boxes and things, and I asked, "Who's in charge of this, and how are we going to organize this?" She said, "Well, someone will be here along at some point." I just kept unloading boxes and kept trying to organize it into looking like a delicatessen. 72 hours later, nobody else showed up and I was in charge of food services down at base relief. Just me.

Brian Lehrer: Wow.

Nicole: I stayed on site and I lived on site for a month and that's what I did. I lived in the classrooms and I worked with a number of guerrilla volunteers who all showed up, mostly women. We had the fashion editor of Vanity Fair was in charge of clothing donations. We had fashion models serving coffee. We took the best of what New Yorkers were and are and can be. I know I've lost most of my friends. I'm one of the last ones that's still alive.

Brian Lehrer: I'm glad you told that story, Nicole, because some stories get remembered and a lot of stories never make it into public view. I think you just told a story in the latter category. What do you do on 9/11 now to commemorate everything you just described?

Nicole: I still work with community pantries and the community fridge here on City Island. It's called Anchor Fridge. Right now, I am preparing some meals which I will be packaging and bringing down to the Fridge. It doesn't matter who makes it. It doesn't matter who gets it. It just matters that it's done. The sun just came out of the clouds as I said that. I believe that there are no mistakes, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Nicole. Thank you very much. We'll take more of your calls right after this.

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Brian Lerner on WNYC as we take your calls on what you do to honor people who lost their lives on September 11th, what you do personally, privately, or publicly. Kathleen in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi Kathleen.

Kathleen: Hi, good morning. This is something that I ended up doing quite by accident. I was in Cork in Ireland in August and our guide took us to this place he called the Garden of Remembrance. It turned out that there was a nurse working in Manhattan who was from Ireland on 9/11 and she ended up dealing with a lot of the post-traumatic injuries. At some point, she returned to Ireland and she decided what she would do was set up a Garden of Remembrance for every firefighter who had died at 9/11.

She acquired this plot of land and planted a tree for every single firefighter. Every tree is different because as she said, every firefighter was a different human being. At the base of every tree is the name of the firefighter and the company that he was employed in. Every year, the people surrounding there in Cork have a ceremony for all our American firefighters.

I was so moved by this, thinking of this little community in Ireland that reaches out and remembers our American firefighters and our guide said, "Whenever I bring Americans to this, they weep." He said, "They're the only people who weep, the Americans come in and weep." It was extraordinary and I'll never forget it. I'm so grateful to the people of Cork for remembering us.

Brian Lehrer: Wonderfully told Kathleen, and another piece of 9/11 remembrance that I personally had no idea about. Thank you so much for sharing that. Jacqueline in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi Jacqueline.

Jacqueline: Hi there. Just a little bit of quick background. In the weeks before 9/11 and the months before I worked as a temp at Merrill Lynch across the street. By some miracle, the day of 9/11, I was sent somewhere else but at the time, I was an assistant to a young man named Rob McElveen. He was one of the very few employees of Merrill Lynch who was killed on 9/11 and quickly identified.

I have been a tour guide for over 20 years, and I've never really been able to find Rob's name since I did the memorial, so I just did regular visits which sometimes are irritating because they're very touristic. A few months ago, I was showing people the memorial, put my arm down just because it was a hot day and the metal was cool and there was Rob's name.

Now when I take tourists down, I tell them his story. I tell them how he was 26 years old and had just been employed a few months earlier and what I know of his story. He wasn't a personal friend but I was his temporary assistant and it personalizes it. It takes it out of the realm of things you take selfies of, I think, and makes it into something real and it honors him.

Brian Lehrer: Jacqueline, beautifully told. I'm glad you got to say his name out loud on the radio. Sally in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Sally.

Sally: I always go to The Table of Silence, as I did this morning. I liked it better when it was simpler but I still think it's a very evocative way. We so rarely do things in unison anymore in this country.

Brian Lehrer: The Table of Silence, is that at Lincoln Center?

Sally: Yes, it is. Yes. It's a bunch of people dressed in white who move around to gongs and drum beats and there's a moment of silence when the plane hit the World Trade Towers. In the evening, I always go down to see the twin beams usually by the reflecting pool. I go around and it just makes me something that I will never forget. When I was ready to retire in 2010, it turned out that I was going to retire at the end of that week. Friday was 9/10, and I thought, "Oh, that's perfect. I'll always remember the date I retired because it's the day before 9/11."

Brian Lehrer: Sally, thank you.

Sally: I did not know anybody who died but I have friends who did lose loved ones.

Brian Lehrer: Sally, thank you very much. Richard in Connecticut, you're on WNYC. Hi Richard.

Richard: Good morning. My memory is a very different one. Our yacht club in Connecticut is on the water and you could see the World Trade Center smoking and whatever from 25 miles away. It was very tragic. What our club does now is they have a cannon flag lowering salute at the times when the first tower was hit, the second tower was hit when the first tower collapsed, and the second tower was collapsed. I was there this morning. It's very quiet and very sad.

Brian Lehrer: So that's on the water of what town in Connecticut?

Richard: Greenwich. Of course, Greenwich also has a separate World Trade Center memorial in another park not quite as close. From that park, you couldn't see the World Trade Center because of topography and things like that. They have a beautiful memorial tower, a glass tower with the names of all the victims from town whose names are memorialized in this glass towers and just in this--

Brian Lehrer: Go ahead. You can finish. Go ahead, finish that thought.

Richard: I was just going to say that our yacht club has a member who walked out of one of the high floors of the tower before it collapsed. It's so amazing to see him, to think that he survived all this and another member who worked for Cantor Fitzgerald, but who had taken the day off so we have these remote connections but it's still very strong memory of what happened.

Brian Lehrer: Thanks, Richard. Some texts coming in. Somebody writes, "I volunteered at a New York City healthcare facility the week of September 11th, 2001, and I will do so today as well." Somebody else writes, "My 2/9/11 rituals are one, sending a message with my love to the people I was with that day in downtown Manhattan. Two, I journal all of my gratitude for the blessings I have, and I write intentions of how I'm going to spend the next 12 months making my world a little better." Tiffany in Washington Heights, you're on WNYC. Hi Tiffany.

Tiffany: Hi David.

Brian Lehrer: It's Brian. It's Brian. That's okay.

Tiffany: I'm sorry Brian. I apologize.

Brian Lehrer: Our next guest is named David so maybe you're present. Go ahead.

Tiffany: Okay. I also was in Connecticut. I was in Bridgeport and I could see the smoke from my rooftop apartment. My husband is an underwater diver. He was called to the site to inspect immediately after and unfortunately discovered body parts. I have a very personal memory of that day.

Brian Lehrer: I guess so. Thank you very much. Let's see. Do we have one more on text to wrap this up with? "Well, it's kind of funny, I guess," listener writes, "I think of an overweight out of shape friend who was in the towers on the 70th floor and ignored the word to shelter in place which was lucky for him and walked down 70 floors and then walked home to 79th Street and was so exhausted. He stayed in bed for more than a week but he survived." Listeners, thanks for your calls and texts on your personal rituals on September 11th each year. Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We turn the page with David Miliband right after this.

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