Community remembers the Valley’s terrorist attack victim

Friends and the community remembered Barbara Keating Tuesday morning, who was on her way home to Palm Springs, when American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to LA hit the World Trade Center. Every year, St. Theresa Catholic Church, where Barbara volunteered at, holds a service in her honor. Every year, Barbara’s friend, Elizabeth Raynes, sits front row.

“She was a delightful lady, happy. Someone said “she lived life every minute.’ She was actually someone who could be in the now all the time,” Elizabeth Raynes said.

Speakers kept driving in the same message to the St. Theresa School students — we must not focus on the ugliness of the attack, but rather the beauty of all the heroism.

“So many good people came together. Police, fire, medical personnel, our military who are fighting a war. All of these people are doing this because they’re heroes. They wanted to protect and take care of someone else,” St. Theresa Catholic School principal Cheryl Corey said.

Time seems to help many remember September 11th, 2001 just that way.

“I believe this year there is a little more calmness about it,” Raynes said.

“Now the message is different. The message then was horror and pray for the families of those who lost someone. Today, it’s praying for them, but more remembering the good that happened as a result of it,” Corey said.

As we remember the good, and as we remember our valley’s own who never made it back home, friends hope we can try and live as Barbara did, too — living life every minute.