By James Windell
Jeanne Mezak had never attended a 9-11 ceremony before the 25-year memorial ceremony held on Friday, September 11, 2026 in downtown South Haven.
“This was the first memorial I have ever attended,” she said following the solemn event in the Huron Street Pavilion. “It was so amazing, and I was so impressed, it brought tears to my eyes.
The 9-11 memorial ceremony has special meaning for Mezak, a long-time South Haven resident. On the morning of September 11, 2001, she was a flight attendant flying over the Atlantic Ocean. She recalls the surprise and the confusion in the plane that morning.
“I was working a flight from Milan to Chicago as an American Airlines Flight Attendant,” she said. “We were over the Atlantic when the captain came on the P.A. and made an announcement that had never been uttered before: ‘The U.S. airspace has been shutdown.’”
Mezak’s flight was directed to land in London. “In those days the planes had phones,” she recalled. “Those who used them said it was a plane that hit the Twin Towers, but the captain turned the phones off and no other information was available until we landed and were deplaning.”
Mezak added that no pilots in any aircraft were provided any further information because Air Traffic Control couldn’t be certain that pilots were not under duress from terrorists or hijackers in the cockpit with boxcutters. “The ATC was busy rerouting the planes,” Mezak said “and the miracle was that, within approximately 15 minutes the U.S. airspace was cleared of all flights – and without incident.”
While attending to the ceremony, Mezak, like more than 200 other people, thought about that day 25 years ago and what they were doing. Also, like so many others in the crowd at the Pavilion, she listened attentively and quietly to the speeches that paid tribute to the events – and heroes – of that day in 2001.
South Haven’s Human Resources Director Kim Wise opened the ceremony with remarks that were very personal to her and her family.
“Twenty-five years ago, this morning began as an ordinary Tuesday,” she said. “As for me, I was a young mom at home with my toddler and baby, folding laundry while getting a rare chance to watch the news instead of Blue’s Clues. My husband, a third-generation firefighter, was on duty that day with South Haven Area Emergency Services.”
She went on to say that for those people who experienced that day, there were moments that will never be forgotten. “We remember where we were when we first heard that a plane had struck the World Trade Center,” she said. “We remember watching the plane hit the second tower, and we realized at that moment this was not an accident. We remember the Pentagon. We remember Flight 93. We remember watching the towers fall. We remember the uncertainty and the fear of not knowing what might happen next, and we remember the eerie feeling of how quiet and empty the sky was once the planes were grounded.”
Referring to the South Haven High School Band members who were present in the audience, Wise said that “many of the young people who are with us this morning, they weren’t born yet on September 11th, 2001. For most of us, September 11th is a memory. For them, September 11th is a history lesson. They know that day through photographs and videos, lessons in school, and the stories we tell them, and that’s one of the reasons why gatherings like this are so important. As the years pass, those of us who remember that day have a responsibility to make sure that story continues to be told.”
Other speakers included City Manager Kate Hosier and Police Chief Adam DeBoer. DeBoer recalled watching the attack on the towers of the World Trade Center on television in his college dorm. He used his speech to remember some of the New York firemen and police officers who performed heroic deeds that day.
Speaking of those heroes, DeBoer said: “They could have stopped. They could have decided the conditions were too dangerous. They didn’t, because there were officers down there, and you don’t leave your people behind. That principle is something every police officer understands.
“I wish I could tell you that witnessing the heroism of the police officers and firefighters on September 11th is what caused me to become a police officer. It wasn’t. But becoming a police officer has changed the way I look at September 11th. Before I became a police officer, I watched those events on television like millions of other Americans. Now, when I see those images, I see something different.
“I see police officers putting on their equipment, firefighters climbing the stairs, and EMS personnel moving towards the entrance. I see people running toward danger while everyone else was trying to escape it. And I think about what that takes. It takes courage, it takes training, it takes discipline, but more than anything else, it takes selflessness.”
Jeanne Mezak says that 9-11 still feels like yesterday. “I remember that on September 12, 2001, after we landed in London, I went to watch the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. What struck me was that they played our National Anthem before they played ‘God Save the Queen.’ We felt such support and empathy.”
