Red Cross worker touched by photos Disaster teams served at ground zero

ELLSWORTH – The messages on the wall were what touched Chris Reed of Franklin most about her three weeks near ground zero: photos of victims of the World Trade Center attacks, hung there by grieving survivors, along with messages and favorite items, such as a baseball cap or T-shirt.

Images and words that both inspired and haunted the people who stopped by the memorial wall to say a prayer or to pay respect to the fallen.

“That is what pulled at my heartstrings,” said Reed, a disaster team leader for the American Red Cross of Eastern Maine, who left last Dec. 28 to help run a service center in Manhattan.

“When you read those messages, messages to daughters, sons; to husbands, brothers, sisters, you couldn’t help but cry,” she said. “It was as though I had become a citizen of New York City.”

Reed headed the American Red Cross service center in the Asian section of Manhattan, where she and other volunteers helped 300 families a day get financial help for rent and food, school tuition, electricity and phone bills, and health care.

Every day was the same, no matter how early she arrived; there was a fresh line of people waiting for assistance, some who had stood outside all night to ensure a spot close to the front when the center opened.

Sometimes without warning, a mother – suddenly single – would wither under the stress and grief and collapse in the line. Sometimes they would cry. Sometimes the screaming could be heard throughout the cavernous building where The Salvation Army and other public service groups also offered aid and comfort.

One woman approached Reed to ask whether Reed had gone to the observation platform at ground zero, built so that people could look down on the ruins and recovery effort. Reed said she had not had a chance, but that she intended to. The woman said she had not yet gone, and didn’t know if she could.

The two women went together but, as Reed explained, for different reasons.

“She went to get some closure,” Reed said, “but I needed to go because I felt I could better service them if I knew what they were going through.

“They were bringing me pictures, mementos. They were bringing me what was left of their life in a box. I just had to see.”