The poignant phrase comes as relatives of 9/11 victims gather each year to remember the loved ones they lost in the attacks.
“I never got to meet you.”
It is the sound of generational change at ground zero, where relatives read the names of victims on each anniversary of the attacks. Nearly 3,000 people died when al-Qaeda hijackers crashed four jetliners into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a field in southwestern Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001.
Some of the names are read by children or young adults who were born after the strikes. Last year, 28 such young adults were present out of more than 140 readers. Young adults are expected again this year at Wednesday's ceremony.
Some are children of victims whose partners were pregnant. Most of the young readers are nieces, nephews or grandchildren of victims. They have inherited the stories, the photographs and the sense of solemn responsibility.
“The 9/11 Family” resonates across generations, and the memory and understanding of the 9/11 attacks will one day be the task of a world that has no first-hand memories of them.
“It's like you're passing the baton on,” says 13-year-old Allan Oldicky.
He has read the names of his grandfather and several others over the past two years and plans to do so Wednesday. Aldytsky keeps mementos from his grandfather, Allan Tarasevich, a firefighter, in his room.
Last year, the teenager told viewers he had heard so much about his grandfather that he felt like he knew him, “but I still wish I could really get to know you,” he added.
Allan volunteered to be a reader because it helps him feel closer to his grandfather and he hopes he will have children who will participate in it.
“It’s an honor to be able to teach them because you can give them the opportunity to learn about their legacy and what should never be forgotten,” he said by phone from central New York. He said he already teaches peers who know little or nothing about 9/11.
When it comes time for the ceremony, he seeks information about the life of each person whose name he is asked to read.
“He thinks about everything and understands the importance of what it means to someone,” said his mother, Melissa Tarasevich.
Reading the names of the fallen is a tradition that extends beyond Ground Zero. War memorials honor fallen soldiers by reading their names out loud. Some Jewish organizations hold readings of the names of Holocaust victims on the international day of remembrance, Yom Hashoah.
Each year, the names of the 168 people killed in the 1995 Oklahoma City federal building bombing are read at the memorial.
On the anniversary of 9/11, the Pentagon ceremony includes a reading of the names of the 184 people who died there by military or government officials. The Flight 93 National Memorial invites relatives and friends of the victims to read a list of the 40 passengers and crew members whose lives ended in rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
The hours-long commemoration at the 9/11 Memorial in New York City is devoted almost entirely to the names of the 2,977 victims at all three sites, as well as the six people killed in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. All are read by relatives who are voluntarily chosen by lottery.
Each is given a subset of names to recite. Readers also typically speak briefly about their own lost relatives, often in touching detail.
“I often think that if you were here, you would be one of my best friends, going to college with me, getting me out of trouble with my mom and dad, hanging out at the Jersey Shore,” Capri Yarosh said last year of her slain uncle, New York City firefighter Christopher Michael Mozzillo.
Now 17, she grew up with a homemade children's book about him and in a family where he is still mentioned in everyday conversation.
“Chris would love this” is a phrase often heard at home.
She performed twice at the mall ceremony.
“It means a lot to me that I can keep my uncle's name alive and just continue to read everyone else's names so that more future generations will know about it,” she said by phone from her family's home in central New Jersey. “I feel good that I can convey the importance of what happened.”
Her two younger sisters also read the names, and one is preparing to do so again Wednesday. Their mother, Pamela Jarosz, could not bring herself to register.
“I don't have that kind of strength. It's too much for me,” says Pamela Jarosz, Mozzillo's sister. “They're braver.”
By now, many of the children of 9/11 victims — like Melissa Tarasiewicz, who had just graduated from high school when her father died — are long grown. But about 100 were born after one of their parents died in the attacks, and are now young adults.
“Even though we've never met, I'm honored to carry your name and legacy with me. I thank you for giving me this life and family,” Manuel DaMota Jr. said of his father, a carpenter and project manager, during a ceremony last year.
At the event, one by one, young readers remembered the aunts, uncles, great-uncles, grandfathers and grandmothers that children missed throughout their lives.
“My whole life my father has said that I remind him of you.”
“I would like you to take me fishing.”
“I would like to have something more from you than just a framed picture.”
“Even though I never got to meet you, I will never forget you.”