NEW YORK - Steven Campbell planned to be there to honour his wife when the last stretcher was carried out of Ground Zero.
But today's ceremony at the World Trade Centre site rang hollow for him and others who have yet to recover their loved ones' remains.
They are losing hope of ever having a funeral, a burial, a grave for their children to visit.
"As a human being, you're taught you have the funeral, you have the body, you have a place to go and mourn," the 36-year-old New Yorker said. "I don't have any of that."
"To not have anything recovered, it's just such an empty feeling," said Jennifer Tarantino, 32, of Bayonne, New Jersey, whose husband died in the attacks. "It's so final. Your husband goes to work one day and that's it, you never see him again."
The ceremony marking the end of the sorrowful, 8-1/2-month clean-up was to begin at 10.29am (2.29am New Zealand time) the moment when the second tower collapsed on September 11.
At today's ceremony a firehouse bell was to toll for the victims in four sets of five chimes each, the traditional firehouse code for a fallen firefighter.
An empty, flag-draped stretcher symbolising the remains not recovered or identified was to be carried from the spot. Thousands of victims' relatives and rescue workers were expected to attend.
On Wednesday, the last steel girder standing - known as the Stars and Stripes beam - was cut down to be removed in today's ceremony. It had stood at what was the lowest level of the south tower's sub-basement.
Of the 2823 people believed killed in the attack, 1102 have been identified, about 300 through DNA alone. About 19,550 body parts have been recovered, some through the sifting process at a Staten Island landfill.
New York City officials said the sifting will continue and the identification process will go on for months. Those parts that cannot be identified will be retained, in case new technology makes it possible someday.
"Someday, I'll have to answer 'Where's my mother?' I don't know how to answer that question. There's the reality of what's happened," Campbell said, "but there's still the question of where is she?"
City authorities hope today's ceremony will put one chapter behind the city and usher in another. Plans are under way to redevelop the area with design-firm Beyer Blinder Belle overseeing the rebuilding of downtown.
By July, the design for a memorial is expected along with various plans for the trade centre site.
The proposals will be narrowed to one by December with an overall site design to be submitted in June 2003.
- AGENCIES
Story archives:
Links: Terror in America - the Sept 11 attacks
Timeline: Major events since the Sept 11 attacks
Trade Centre ceremony has hollow ring for grieving families
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