“Happy birthday, Angela,” says Liza Yonus as she waters the white rose she drops into the 9/11 memorial in New York. This woman places white roses in the names of those whose birthday it is everyday.

She says, “There isn’t one day in the year where there isn’t a birthday of a victim.” Her brother, Robert Francis Wallace, was one of the victims in the south tower; placing the flowers helps her remember her brother as well as all the other victims. Daily, she goes to the memorial where her brother’s name is engraved in the morning. All of the flowers are donated by a volunteer paramedic named Mikey Collarone who works at FloraTech. Families have sent letters thanking Mikey and he said, “It really tears at my heart, and it just makes me want to continue what I’m doing.” George Mironis, who volunteers at the 9/11 memorial museum has requested to, when he gets in, take the roses Mikey donated and set them out in the memorial.

I remember going to the memorial, seeing these white flowers and thinking they were a kind gesture or from family; but now, they mean so much more.