By George W. Rhodes The Sun Chronicle
Last year’s ceremony was ‘unofficial,’ state says
A bridge dedicated last year to the memory of 9/11 victims Lynn Goodchild and Shawn Nassaney will be rededicated Friday.
The second ceremony was scheduled because last year’s occurred before the state Legislature passed a law formally naming the state-owned bridge, making the ceremony on July 28, 2011, “unofficial,” according to the state Department of Transportation.
A person in the press office also said the ceremony was “at the request of the families,” which one of the families denied, but added that they approve of the move.
State Rep. George Ross, R-Attleboro, pushed to get the law through and finally convinced colleagues to finish the job in March of this year when the bill was signed by Gov. Deval Patrick.
He and others thought the ceremony should be repeated.
“We wanted to make it official and we felt that this was the way to do it,” Ross said. “This solidifies it, and makes it right.”
A new sign with the state’s seal of approval and its seal naming the bridge the “Lynn Goodchild-Shawn Nassaney 9/11 Remembrance Memorial Bridge” has been put up and covered with orange plastic until the ceremony scheduled for 9:30 a.m.
The sign used last year was put up by the city and used the city’s seal.
Margaret Nassaney, Shawn’s mom, said her family did not seek another ceremony, but welcomes it.
“Anything that helps people remember Shawn and Lynn is a good thing to us,” she said.
Bill and Ellen Goodchild, Lynn’s parents, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Goodchild, who was 25 and from Attleboro, and Nassaney, who was 25 and from Pawtucket, were on a vacation trip to Hawaii when terrorists hijacked their United Airlines flight out of Logan International Airport in Boston and flew it into the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City at 9:03 a.m. on September 11, 2001.
Their flight, Flight 175, was the second plane crashed into the Twin Towers that morning.
The first, American Airlines Flight 11, also hijacked out of Boston, hit the North Tower about 17 minutes earlier.
Goodchild and Nassaney were two of the almost 3,000 Americans and others murdered that day as the result of four airliner hijackings by 19 terrorists.
To watch a video of the rededication ceremony, please click here.
