Anna Sweeney Rossman wears a calm smile as she approaches a bench outside the Acton Public Safety building on Main Street, home to the Fire and Police Departments.
A prominent memorial to all the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks is located out front. Two 10-foot steel beams — artifacts from the World Trade Center Towers — jut out from several rocks as a tribute to those who lost their lives in the terrorist attacks that occurred 25 years ago.
Several commemorative plaques circle the beams, including one large rock with the signature of Rossman’s mother — Madeline Amy Sweeney — etched into it.
The Acton resident was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11 when the hijackers flew the plane into the north tower of the World Trade Center. The plane originated from Boston’s Logan Airport, bound for Los Angeles.
This year, as the nation marks the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the victims of those attacks are being honored across the world. In Dracut, residents honor Captain John Ogonowski, the pilot on Flight 11 that day, who was an agricultural enthusiast in that town.
Meanwhile, Sweeney, the young mother from Acton, reflects on what could have been.
“She would have been the best grandmother,” said Sweeney Rossman. “The short time I had with her, she was the best mom.”
Sweeney is married, lives in Acton, and has two daughters, a 19-month-old and a 2-month-old.
“I think about this often, because I’m only a couple years younger than she was when she passed,” she said. “Everything I do with my daughters, I’m thinking, ‘Was she thinking this when she was raising children? How did she navigate this? What would she be doing in this situation?’”
Other plaques on the monument honor Phillip Rosenzweig, also of Acton, a passenger onboard Flight 11; and all the New York City police and firefighters, as well as Port Authority police, who lost their lives.
Honoring Sweeney’s legacy
Sweeney Rossman was 5 years old when her mother died.
“I remember the day, I was at school, I was in kindergarten, and I was — it was just a normal day for me,” she said.
Her nana picked her up from school early, and they got home to a houseful of waiting relatives.
“And even being so young, I remember it not taking that long for me to realize something must be wrong because then my dad pulled me aside and told me that a lot of people had gotten hurt and most of them were not OK,” she said.
Her 5-year-old mind slowly started to grasp that she and her younger brother Jack, wouldn’t be seeing their Mom again. But she says she didn’t understand fully until she was a few years older.
It all became clearer when she started participating in handing out the “Madeline Amy Sweeney Award for Civilian Bravery.” Her mother was the first recipient of the award, which honored her composure and bravery on Sept. 11, 2001.
On that flight, Sweeney, a 13-year veteran of the airline, stayed on the phone for 25 minutes with ground manager Michael Woodward, according to the Mass Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. Sweeney’s bravery and calmness throughout that phone call helped authorities identify the terrorists that hijacked the plane.
“In sixth grade I started reading names at the State House. I think that’s sort of when I understood the role that my mom had played,” she said.
Other award recipients-Dracut farmer
Two other Flight 11 crew members, Captain John Ogonowski and flight attendant Betty Ann Ong, were posthumously awarded the Sweeney award that first year.
Ogonowski, of Dracut, was a Polish-American pilot for Flight 11. According to many who knew him, he was also an agricultural activist. His family owns a farm on Marsh Hill Road, where hay is now harvested.
David Paquin, a long-time Dracut resident, knew John and his brother Jim Ogonowski for years. He hopes that Ogonowski and the other victims of that day will not be forgotten.
“John Ogonowski was a pilot of Flight 11, American Airlines. This was the first plane to hit the World Trade Center, and by that we believe that John was the first person to die because they had to kill him before they could take over the plane. He would never have— he would never have done that. I knew him well enough that I knew that,” said Paquin.
As a member of the Dracut Historical Society, Paquin designed the memorial that stands outside the town’s Number 2 fire station. Paquin said that years ago, local governments could request a piece of steel from the World Trade Center, and he did.
“Back in March of 2011, I filled out the paperwork that we needed … and we applied to the World Trade Center Committee for acquisition of a piece of steel,” he said. “ All I had to do was describe as big a piece of steel as I could handle,” he added.
Paquin designed the memorial using an eight-foot piece of steel beam that overlooks the Ogonowski farm.
“The piece of steel is angled so that it transcends the Ogonowski Farm, which is directly adjacent to us now, and it ends at the World Trade Center,” he said.
Paquin said the angle of the memorial piece of steel has great symbolism: it’s situated exactly as it would stand at the World Trade Center in New York City.
“I put the piece of steel at an angle that’s 9 degrees, 11 minutes. The circle itself is 9 feet, 11 inches,” he said.
Dracut Fire Chief Mike Cunha said the memorial is in a perfect location.
“Knowing that the family is here and they can see it when they drive by as a memorial and just an everyday reminder of the sacrifices made that day,” he said. “John Ogonowski was a farmer in Dracut, a husband, a father in the community. We embrace it because John was part of this community. He still is. We will never forget the sacrifices made that day, and it hits home because John was the pilot.”
A ceremony is held at the memorial every year at 8:46 a.m., the time the first plane hit the North Tower. The service reminds people — especially those born after 2001 — of the sacrifices all the first responders made that day.
“Those first responders that day who ran towards danger, when everybody else was running away — they knew what they were getting themselves into, and they still did it. That’s what we honor that day on 9/11.”
Growing up in the shadow of 9/11
Looking back, Sweeney Rossman is grateful she was able to attend a summer camp with many other children who lost a parent during the Sept. 11 attacks, called America’s Camp. She describes it as “a trauma-informed sleepaway camp.”
“All of the counselors and staff were trained … on how to understand the questions that we were going to ask and how to prepare and how to still give us an experience without letting their own emotions about it take over, which must have been an extremely challenging thing to do at the same time.”
As a teenager, she decided to submerse herself into the history of 9/11.
“I was maybe in eighth or ninth grade where I wanted to know everything,” she said. “I was looking at all kinds of different articles and books and websites and videos, and then it didn’t take long for me to realize I don’t think I want to keep looking at this. This is a lot.”
Sweeney Rossman went on to study counterterrorism in college, and even received her graduate degree, saying, “it shaped my whole life.”
In 2019,she came face to face with the those involved in planning the hijacking during a trip to Guantanamo Bay for part of the pre-trial hearings.
“I did plenty of papers on al-Qaeda and on other terrorism organizations,” she said. “I don’t think they know specifically who’s who, but they knew why we were there.”
Today, Sept. 11 is a day for Sweeney Rossman to honor her mother’s bravery and kindness.
“I want my mom to be remembered,” she said. “I never want to stop talking about her, and I don’t want people to forget who she was and the role that she played.”
She said that while her children may never meet her mom, they are getting to know her through stories, photos and the many videos her mother chronicled in her short life.
“For me, it’s an honor to be a part of the Madeline Amy Sweeney Award for Civilian Bravery, especially because it highlights another civilian. It highlights someone else putting themselves in harm’s way to save a life, which is what my mom did,” she said. “And I think that sheds a light of hope on a day that’s very sad and heavy. And it, for me, reminds me that there are still a lot of good people in the world.”
