By Chris Spargo Daily Mail Online
A woman who spent 13 years trying to find the owner of a wedding photo found in the rubble of the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks has been called ‘the best of humanity.’
Fred Mahe, who worked on the 77th floor of the second World Trade Center tower, had pinned the photo to his office cubicle, but did not expect to see it again after the terror attack in 2001.
But every September, Elizabeth Stringer Keefe has posted image of the six people at a wedding online to try and reunite it with its owner.
Yesterday she was finally successful after her tweet was re-posted 35,000 times and after Mr Mahe saw it he sent Ms Stringer Keefe a message on LinkedIn.
‘Attention wonderful world: ALL SIX PEOPLE ARE ALIVE AND WELL AND I HAVE JUST SPOKEN TO ONE OF THEM!!!!!!!!!!! #Happyending #911photo,’ Ms. Keefe tweeted yesterday.
Mr Mahe is pictured in the background of the photo, taken at a friend’s wedding in Aspen – he was on his way to work when the attack occurred.
The pair talked for the first time over the phone and hope to meet up soon.
Mr Mahe told ABC News: ‘On 9/11 I saw the worst of humanity, (but) on 9/12 I saw the best of humanity.’
‘Elizabeth (Stringer Keefe) is 100 percent 9/12.’
‘The story is Elizabeth, the story is persistence and trying to help someone she didn’t even know,’ said Mr Mahe, who now lives in Colorado with his wife and children.
The photo came into Ms Stringer Keefe’s possession back in October of 2001, when a friend who uncovered it in some of the rubble near the sight passed it off to her, and asked that she do something meaningful with it.
‘There’s so much beauty and happiness in the photo, and whatever relationship it had to 9/11, I wanted to care for it until I could return it to its owner,’ said Ms Stringer Keefe, who is an assistant professor at Lesley University.
Mr Mahe also contacted Christine Loredo, the bride in the photograph, who said she felt the photo was a ‘great memento of resilience.’
‘I think it’s nice to know that people out there care so much for strangers,’ Mrs Loredo said.
‘It gives me confidence in humanity.’
