Ground Zero: Woman Returns Found Wedding Photo 13 Years Later
Through the power of social media and a woman' determination, a wedding photo found in the wreckage of the World Trade Center following the 9/11 attacks has been returned to its owner. Elizabeth Stringer Keefe, a professor from Lesley University, was given the photo in October 2001 by a friend who had found a joyful wedding photo in the Ground Zero destruction.
Keefe told Boston magazine that the person who originally found the picture moved to the West Coast and left Keefe in charge of finding them.
"It's a beautiful, joyful moment captured in time and it was such a contrast to what I saw at Ground Zero, which was still burning when I was there," Keefe said to Mashable. "So, if it had a relationship to 9/11, I wanted to keep it safe until I could return it to its owner. There's so much beauty and happiness in the photo that I just felt committed to the task."
On Sept. 11 each year since, Keefe tweets the same image and message, hopeful to identify and reunite the people with their photograph.
#TY 2 everyone who has RT or shared the #911 photo. It's never caught on anywhere else where posted! #WTC #NYC pic.twitter.com/rnfW3pCKMh
— E. Stringer Keefe (@ProfKeefe) September 12, 2014
After the photo was retweeted tens of thousands of times, Keefe received a LinkedIn message from a man named Fred Mahe on Sept. 12. Mahe said the photo sat on his desk when he worked on the 77th floor of the second WTC. He had not seen it since 9/11.
Bears Retweeting #911photo pic.twitter.com/vsIpKCJ1oR — E. Stringer Keefe (@ProfKeefe) September 13, 2014
Mahe and Keefe reportedly talked on the phone and Keefe hopes they will meet soon, according to ABC News. Mahe contacted the bride in the picture, Christine Loredo, who said she felt the photo represented a "great memento of resilience."
Attention wonderful world: ALL SIX PEOPLE ARE ALIVE AND WELL AND I HAVE JUST SPOKEN TO ONE OF THEM!!!!!!!!!!! #Happyending #911photo
— E. Stringer Keefe (@ProfKeefe) September 12, 2014
Keefe safely kept the picture for 13 years safe in her favorite Ernest Hemingway book.
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