Twenty years later, September 11 remains a solemn day

People leave flowers at the memorial outside the Avon Free Library remembering Avon High graduate Amy Toyen, who died on September 11.

It’s been 20 years. For many of us, it was just yesterday.

Avon High graduate Amy Toyen

The memories and the feelings are just as vivid today as they were on September 11, 2001. For some of us, they are feelings are deeper knowing what those who passed away on that fateful day have missed in the last two decades.

It was a beautiful, sunny day in Avon on this Saturday morning – very similar to that day 20 years ago in New York City, Washington, D.C. and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania when terrorists used airplanes as weapons to kill innocent American men and women.

Nearly 3,000 Americans were killed. Some were passengers in the four hijacked aircraft. Some were in the Pentagon or the World Trade Center buildings that were hit. Others were police, firefighters and other emergency personnel responding to the incident in New York and died when the buildings collapsed.

One hundred and sixty-one residents with ties to Connecticut died in the attack. Avon wasn’t spared.

Amy Toyen, 24, died in New York City. Toyen, an employee of Thomson Financial in Boston, was in New York to attend an event at the World Trade Center. A marketing coordinator for Thomson Financial, she was helping to set up a display about her company at a trade show on the 106th floor.

Amy was raised in Avon and graduated from Avon High School in 1995. She graduated from Bentley College in 1999.

Since 2002, a memorial in her honor has been at the Avon Free Public Library. Canton artist Marilyn Parkinson Thrall designed and executed a 22-inch bronze statue depicting Amy as a young girl, sitting cross-legged on a bench and cradling a teddy bear as she reads a book on her lap.

Each year, people bring flowers to the memorial. This morning, a balloon was tied to the wrist of the girl. It said “Thinking of You.”

A woman came to the memorial, laid some flowers on the bench and gently touched the shoulder of the statue. “We remember you, sweetheart,” she said softly.

It was a day of reflection for those we lost and those who have survived. It was a day to be kind and to give our loved ones a hug.

Because, we will never forget.

Hartford Courant story in 2002 on the dedication the memorial at the library.

Remembering Amy