By Jessie Sawyer Avon Patch
After the 9/11 memorial service at Avon Volunteer Fire Department headquarters on the 12the anniversary of the tragedy, Dorine Toyen remarked on how it was a beautiful, sunny day just like September 11, 2001.
“We appreciate that the fire department every year remembers,” Toyen said.
Her daughter, Amy, then 24, was at Windows of the World at the top of one of the World Trade Center towers on business that fateful day and was killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers.
Every year people leave flowers in Amy’s honor at a statue of her outside the Avon Free Public Library.
The Avon Volunteer Fire Department also hosts a 9/11 service annually.
“Today isn’t just for our daughter, it’s for all who have perished,” Martin Toyen, Amy’s father said, thanking all who have served in the military for the United States of America and asking that everyone remember “this day and all who were sacrificed.”
Dorine Toyen said that 9/11 is a particularly tough day every year for her family.
“We remember her all the time and it doesn’t matter about the day,” Toyen said.
In 2001 [sic], she and Martin visited Ground Zero for the 10th anniversary and saw Amy’s name at the memorial. Attendees observed moments of silence at the times the two planes struck each tower and that another plane en route to Washington, D.C. crashed in Pennsylvania. Jeffrey Gonski, Amy’s fiancée at the time of her death, met them there with his wife, Stephanie Galvani attended.
“It was really hard,” Dorine Toyen said.
On 9/11, Martin Toyen spreads the message of appreciating every moment you have with them because “you never know what might happen.”
“Always think of your loved ones, maybe this day more than others,” he said. “Hold them, tell them you love them.”
