LYMAN — In a ceremony honoring the heroes and the fallen of that fateful day on 9/11 Monday night, approximately 80 percent of the crowd was standing in testimony to their families’ service.

The Monday night ceremony, sponsored by the Bridger Valley Coalition of Churches, played to a moderate crowd at the Lyman rodeo arena. The military and service professions had been asked to stand earlier in the ceremony. As the night was drawing to a close, the military was again asked to stand. Then people who served in the service industries such as a police officer firefighter, EMT were asked to stand. Then those who had family, who had served were asked to stand, resulting in approximately 80 percent of the group on their feet.

Although the ceremony focused on the peril of 9/11 and the resultant disbelief, anger and the drawing the nation together in adversity, the speakers also talked about the unity of Bridger Valley and the generosity of the people in the Valley.

Bryan Hamblin sang a song, which epitomized the feelings of Americans of that fateful day.

“Did you stand in shock…fear for your…neighbor…or just lay down and cry…Where were you when the world stopped turning on that dreadful day?”

EMT Georgia Castle spoke of the reports of the air being filled with a “thick blanket of grayish ash,” and talked of the selfless work of the responders.

Joe Galvin, Assembly of God Church asked, “How could anyone hate so much?” He also noted “across the nation, there was no race, no creed, we were all Americans.”

The plaintive sound of “Taps,” played by Meagan Dunlap, drifted across the arena as signaling the end of the ceremony and the end of another day.

Pictured:

Waiting for the start with the flags of the U. S. military in place in front of the stage at the 9/11 ceremony Monday night in Lyman. PIONEER PHOTO/Virginia Giorgis