Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Ceremony Ends Ground Zero Recovery Today

Aired May 30, 2002 - 09:21   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: An hour from now we will be bringing you live coverage of the ceremony marking an end to the official recovery efforts at ground zero. And while the work -- most of it will end, at least -- it will not necessarily bring closure for the families of 1,700 victims whose remains either were not recovered or haven't been identified at all.

Let's go back now to ground zero.

Michael Okwu is standing by, as he gets ready to cover the ceremony a little bit later on this morning.

Good morning -- Michael.

MICHAEL OKWU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Paula.

Thousands of people have already started assembling here at ground zero. And one of the lessons perhaps that we might have learned from September 11 is the fact that that often-used word "closure," Paula, may never be realized. And in fact, for some families it will be especially hard.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OKWU (voice-over): For families who lost lives here, it is the site of the massacre. For some, it is also a final resting place.

ANNE GERTSBERG, MOTHER OF 9/11 VICTIM: We came to the country to have a better life. We did have it for 22 years. It was a fairy tale. Now it is over.

OKWU: Russian immigrants Anna and Roman Gertsberg lost their only child, 25-year-old Marina. None of her remains have been identified. She arrived for work at Cantor Fitzgerald in tower one early one on 9/11. It was only her seventh day.

ROMAN GERTSBERG, FATHER OF 9/11 VICTIM: That day she had to go to school, and then the reason she was hurting, she is with us. She is with us. She can hear us. She is just in a different state.

A. GERTSBERG: We see her in dreams. We talk to her. Usually when a person have a dream, they want to wake up and say, you know, thank God it was a dream, but we have opposite thing. We don't want it wake up. OKWU: Every morning for 91 days, retired firefighters woke up to search for his son, 29-year-old Jonathan, a firefighter with rescue two. Ielpi continued to come long after he lost hope his son was alive.

LEE IELPI, FATHER OF 9/11 VICTIM: I helped out in a lot of situations where people were found. We didn't find them alive, but we found them. When we found somebody, that made it easier to find somebody out there. But I said, I'm staying here until I find my son.

OKWU: He said searching for his son was agonizing, day after day, back when residents here said the air carried the scent of unsettled souls. To get through it, he talked to his dead son.

(on camera): What did you say to him?

IELPI: That I missed him, that I missed his five, and six and seven calls everyday of the week. I miss him. I told him we're going to bring him home.

OKWU: On December 11, he did, one of the 289 in-tact bodies recovered.

A. GERTSBERG: This is Marina's room.

OKWU: Without remains, the Gertsburgs hold on to remnants, photos of the life, young, developing, and still full of promise. A video of their joint 50th birthday party, watched here for the first time since 9/11.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... I have turned out to be great person, don't you guys think?

R. GERTSBERG: I spoke with (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in her office. I speak with them very often. They have a lot of parts which still has to be DNA'd, and I still hope they will find something.

OKWU: But Anna now says she'd rather they not find anything at all.

A. GERTSBERG: I have a story that she vanished, she burned, and that's it, that that's why they can't find the pieces, nothing. But if they find the pieces, it means she suffered. And I don't want her to suffer. She didn't deserve to die.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OKWU: The Gertsbergs say that they will be attending the ceremonies this morning. They say that when they come to ground zero they are much closer to their family. They're much closer to Marina, and they're much closer to families who have experienced what they have, which they say is an unrelenting sense of loss and a much deeper connection than any of the rest of us could possibly feel to what we call ground zero -- Paula.

ZAHN: It broke my heart to hear that interview you just did. And I know you've spoken with countless other families going through the same thing. There just is no way to get your arms around this, is there?

OKWU: It's absolutely unfathomable, Paula. I mean, I have so many friends who say that they can't watch all of the events going back to September 11. And in fact, when I go and talk to families like this one and all the pictures come back to me, and I relive the experience again, and I can only imagine what they're going through.

ZAHN: All right. Michael Okwu, who is standing by to cover the formal closing ceremonies for the ground zero recovery effort.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com