That was the scene minutes ago at Station 29 in North Admiral, one of the Seattle Fire Department stations where firefighters paid tribute this morning to the hundreds of first responders who lost their lives because of the 9/11 attacks – 25 years ago today. Each fire station read aloud some of the names of those lost.
ADDED 10:35 AM: Here’s our video of the ceremony, starting with lowering the station flag to half-staff:
Thanks for posting. I have seen the flag raised and I have seen the flag lowered and I have seen the flag at half-mast. Never have I seen the flag lowered to half-mast.Very moving!
The proper way to fly the American flag at half mast is to raise it fully, then lower it to half. When retiring the flag at dusk, the flag is raised to full then lowered.
Thank for helping us to remember those brave firefighters and all of those we have lost on this day and the years afterwards.
Thank you for posting this. I’m remembering and mourning the death in late 2024 of my favorite cousin, who worked with the cadaver dogs on Ground Zero. No mask. No protection. Just Sukie and the dogs, along with hundreds of other heart-broken helpers.
From that time on, she suffered debilitating lung diseases and ended up in a wheelchair the last 15+ years of her life. She was in her mid 40s when she jumped in to help. She never registered to collect any health benefits or to be counted as one of the thousands who were there.
This is the tribute to my dear, much missed cousin, Sukie Zeeve, written by her niece: Suzanne
‘Sukie’ Rebecca ZeeveBy Rachel ZeeveIf anyone ever did the phrase, “force of nature” any justice, it was Suzanne “Sukie” Rebecca Zeeve. You could see it in the easy way that lemurs and eagles perched on her shoulders in photos from her time studying animal behavior in Madagascar and the Republic of Congo. You could hear it in the way she could make any dog levitate with joy just by singing a
nonsense song with their name in it. Sukie made every creature feel understood.
She was the first woman zookeeper at the Bronx Zoo. With a Ph.D. in Comparative Biopsychology from SUNY Stony Brook, she was a fearless advocate for animals and served on a FEMA veterinary emergency response team.
She rode horses, trained dogs and captained kayaks. A tireless creative, she
played guitar and had an infinite collection of books on every subject. Looking
at her prolific doodles, paintings and sketches, you can almost hear her
laughing as she made them. She was also my aunt. In elementary and middle school, I would spend part of each summer at her house. These weeks were nothing short of what Sukie herself was: magic.
In the evenings, I’d tell her all about my day at horse camp. Over ice cream sandwiches, we’d cover everything from music and books, to politics, to how best to do an Eric Cartman impression.
Whichever dogs happened to be staying over at the time would hang onto Sukie’s every word, and so would I. She was everything I wanted to be. And she still is.
A multi-decade resident of East Setauket with deep roots in the community, she will be profoundly missed. Completely adored by her friends and family, the ecosystem Sukie left behind feels incomplete without her. But she was an artist as much as she was a scientist — the beauty of her memory is just as real as her intrepid presence was.
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