A region refuses to forget

Emotional fifth anniversary of 9/11 ends with candlelight ceremonies

A Taunton native who lost his wife on Sept. 11 makes a poignant visit to ground zero.

By Terence J. Downing
Enterprise staff writer

TAUNTON - When 5 1/2-year-old Riley Casey started kindergarten this month, her mother Neilie Casey wasn’t there to see her off on the first day of school.

Neilie Casey, who died in the Sept. 11 attacks, holds her daughter, Riley, now 5 1/2, in this family photo.

Neilie Casey was among the passengers killed aboard American Airlines Flight 11 at 8:46 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001, when the plane was flown by terrorists into the World Trade Center in New York.

She was on a business trip for TJX Cos., where she worked as a merchandise planning manager. Riley was 7 months old.

Early that morning, Neilie Casey got up at 5:40 a.m. to get ready and woke Riley to kiss her goodbye.

Her husband, Taunton native Michael W. Casey, kissed and hugged Neilie before she left the house. He watched her car pull away from their driveway and waved out the bedroom window.

Neilie Casey stopped the car, he recalled. She flipped on the interior light, leaned across the passenger seat, looked up and waved farewell with her great big smile.

When the day was over, Michael Casey was a single parent.

On the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11, Casey said he has been through a healing and grieving process and started a new chapter in his life.

“I’ve had the help of family, friends and I relied on my faith, and I got help from a grief counselor,” said Casey, 38. “It was a combination of all of them and I allowed myself to grieve.”

Neilie Casey, 32, loved sports, particularly golf, running and the Red Sox. She had a wide circle of friends, a beaming smile and was very active in supporting non-profit groups to make a difference in people’s lives.

“The strong relationship I had with Neilie helped me move ahead, and Riley gave me a reason to move forward,” he said. “I had a baby giving off so much positive energy. Riley is wonderful.”

Casey, who now lives in Wellesley, began to pick up the pieces and forge ahead.

He had a successful career in advertising, but decided to follow his passion for photography and has since become a freelance photographer.

Riley began school this month. “I’m excited about school for her,” Casey said.

Casey planned to be in New York City Monday for the anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

“It’s a personal assignment. I feel the need to be there to document the fifth year for my own personal reasons,” he said last week.

Casey’s new wife will also be there on assignment. Casey married Channel 4 TV news anchor Lisa Hughes a year and three months ago. They met through a mutual friend.

The marriage is part of the new chapter in his life.

His mother, who still lives in Taunton on Briarwood Drive and walks daily, will be moving closer to him.

Casey, who grew up on Briarwood Drive and was the youngest of four children, attended Elizabeth Pole Elementary, Martin Middle and Taunton High schools. At Taunton High, he was president of his class and a star runner. He graduated from Holy Cross College.

Casey thanked all the people who continue to send him messages of support and warm wishes.

“To this day I still get them. People are happy for Lisa and me and the new chapter in my life,” Casey said.

Casey said the country has moved on, but people “should never forget the events of 9/11 and how precious life is. Don’t forget the feelings you had on that day and don’t forget Neilie and all the others that died.”

Many inspired by Sept. 11 painting

Photo by Kelly Fernandes

Onset firefighters Jack Allen, top left, and Earl Fowler, top right, and Flo Byron, bottom left, and Joanne Byron display the 9/11 painting.

Artist Alexander Byron took three weeks to capture the courage and patriotism of firefighters.

By Kelly Fernandes
ENTERPRISE CORRESPONDENT

WAREHAM - Like most Americans, Flo Byron will never forget the moment she realized the United States was under attack on Sept. 11, 2001.

“I was driving down Cranberry Highway on my way to visit a friend at Tobey Hospital, and I heard it on the radio. I was so mad. Two days later, I called my brother and said, ‘What are you going to do about it?’ I don’t know why I said that to him. It just came out of me,” said Byron.

A few days later her brother, artist Alexander Byron, responded by picking up a paintbrush.

Within three weeks, he captured the courage and patriotism of firefighters in a 6- by 5-foot painting he titled “We Must Never Forget.”

The painting is his interpretation of a photograph of three firefighters raising the American flag at Ground Zero.

“It was a very emotional painting, and I had my ups and downs. At the same time, I had to paint it fast. I actually had to call my son up in San Francisco and ask him if I could paint over something he had on the same canvas,” said Alexander Bryon.

The original painting was posted Nov. 10, 2001, on a billboard on Cranberry Highway in south Wareham under the care of the Onset Fire Department.

In March 2002, the department, led by Chief Howard Andersen, removed it and took it to the Statehouse in Boston, where it was unveiled during an emotional ceremony attended by hundreds of safety officials and members of the public.

Over the years, the painting has been featured at various events and parades across New England and at one point captured the attention of the television show “Good Morning America.”

In 2004, while the original was on tour, Flo, her sister Joanne Byron and longtime friend Dr. Milton Weiner raised money to purchase a replica of it.

They displayed it at the same Cranberry Highway location.

Due to weathering, the replica has been restored a few times by the Onset Fire Department.

But two weeks ago, it was restored again, and the Byrons had no idea who did it.

“I drive by the painting all the time and the other day I noticed it was restored. No one could figure out who did it. I called Chief Andersen. He didn’t know. No one did,” said Joanne Byron.

She later found that former Onset Fire Capt. Earl Fowler was responsible.

Fowler, now an active reservist of the Onset Fire Department, has been a firefighter for 37 years and was captain for 10 years.

“One part of the picture came down and, being a firefighter, I know what it stands for. My relative, Herb Getchell, a retired soldier, and I got a ladder, and put screws in it to hold it in place. It has a Plexiglas shield, but we’re looking into replacing it with a weather-proof picture, a laminate replica or something,” said Fowler.

He and fellow Firefighter Jack Allen took the original painting to the Statehouse in 2001.