As part of a long Memorial Day weekend, Stacey Wehe and her family traveled to Pennsylvania to celebrate her grandparents’ 60th anniversary. A special stop was made at the site of the Overly Manufacturing Company where her family members had worked. Overly Manufacturing produced door hardware for the Gateway Arch trams and metal panels for the Milwaukee Art Museum (which MMA staff visited during an office trip a few years back). The trip culminated in a visit to the Flight 93 National Memorial Museum in Shanksville, not far from her father’s hometown of Greensburg PA.
Designed by Paul Murdoch Architects, the first step in the on-going memorial construction involved restoring the land. Panels tell the story of Flight 93 where terrorists tried to take control of the plane on September 11, 2001. Through the rails of a huge wooden gate, visitors can see a large boulder which marks the point of impact. The memorial includes a chair for each passenger and a quarter mile walk brings visitors to the Wall of Names. Visitors leave mementos inside niches in the granite walls. No one is allowed to enter the crash site. The final resting place of the passengers and crew is the heart of the Flight 93 National Memorial and remains untouched. Stacey was moved by the beauty, simplicity and serenity of the site.