Nora Link, 15, comforts her mother Melissa (right), during a 9/11 Memorial Ceremony at the Athens County Court House commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the attack on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. Melissa, who was in her early 20s and teaching school at the time, told the Independent that the event continues to be emotional for her. “The shock of just waking up and then people are scrambling. Because you didn’t know what’s going on. Was it a terrorist? Was it just an airplane malfunction? Were we actually under attack?,” Melissa said, “And we didn’t know for the longest time what was going on.” Photo taken by Leah Nairn, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026.
