NEW YORK, NY September 12, 2003 — There were memorials and ceremonies throughout the city yesterday marking the second anniversary of the September 11th attacks. WNYC's Beth Fertig has this look at how the city and New Yorkers were mourning the event two years later.

Two years ago, the corner of Bleecker and Laguardia Place in Greenwich Village was crowded with people staring south as the Twin Towers burned. But yesterday, it was just another Thursday morning for Sidney Wicks; well, almost.

WICKS: The scariest thing is that when I went into the grocery store where I buy coffee in the morning I forgot. You know. And I was talking about how are you, oh fine, the same things we say every day. And I slipped right into that. Just for that minute I forgot and I walked out the door and thought how could you.'

That's why she said she's having a hard time on the second anniversary.

WICKS: Yeah it's almost more painful because I forgot. And I don't know what we're supposed to do, are we supposed to forget? I never found the right place to put it in and still haven't. But my memorials I guess take place inside.

Around the corner, John Gavin was walking his eight year old daughter Lilly to school. Last year he went to a memorial service at St. John the Divine - but this year was still up in the air.

GAVIN: I just haven't notice what the plans are. I'm sure friends will call this afternoon and say let's do this, or let's do that. I expect to cook a family dinner and be sort of quiet with immediate family. Things became a little bit smaller for me since then.

The ceremony itself was also smaller. At 5:30 in the morning, June Douglas of Coram Long Island was among 10 people lining up on Church Street. By this time last year there were more than 100 greeting a procession of marchers from all five boroughs.

DOUGLAS: It's still the same to me in my heart. I'm just wondering where everybody is that's all. Like, gee they were here last year. What happened?

At yesterday's ceremony, children read the names of the victims instead of public officials. The site is now a construction zone. But families were still able to descend to honor their loved ones. Marilyn Matthews of Cranford New Jersey came for her sister, Carol Anne Leplant.

MATTHEWS: I thought it was a beautiful ceremony, very peaceful. We just returned from the pit and we formed a name with stone, and we laid flowers in her memory and prayed.

But life went on throughout the city. Though New Yorkers were juggling mixed emotions. At the Chelsea Square restaurant, head waiter Herman Rodriguez said he attended a vigil the night before.

RODRIGUEZ: It's not too easy to feel better It's not too easy to change in 1-2 years. I think this is going to be very sad for many years.

His customer, Elena Adominay, had just taken her child to school.

ADOMINAY: We go to work, we proceed our lives as if nothing happened. In reality there is a kind of sad feeling. I was sharing with other parents in school this morning. They were all feeling awkward about this day.

Students and teachers were also struggling with their feelings. Katrina Foye attended a parent meeting at her daughter's school in Bedford Stuyvesant wearing a red, white and blue scarf around her neck. Foye is also a third grade teacher - at a school in East New York.

FOYE: With my students we wrote letters, wishful heavenly sent letters to the victims that passed away one wrote the first name of the victim was Chris and he wrote I also have a friend named Chris, one wrote I wonder if you had any children, I know that you miss your family.

But older students had more difficult questions.

HIGH SCHOOL KIDS Didn't Bill Clinton have several opportunities to get Bin Laden, snipers

Twelfth graders at Martin Luther High School in Maspeth, Queens spent their government studies class discussing how the world has changed since September 11th.. Sean Becket and Melissa Kong had a dim view of the future.

SEAN: There might be another attack but people shouldn't worry about if there is going to be one or not, they should just live their life one day at a time

MELISSA: There's always going to be a war between countries and there's always going to be something going on. Everyone's back to acting the way they were and it's definitely going to happen again cause none of us learned from our mistakes. It's inevitable.

Some New Yorkers were even more cynical. Back in Manhattan, Tom Neckel didn't think much of this year's memorials.

NECKEL: Last year I think it was much more fresh, you know you can really actually see the plumes of smoke in the sky. And I think as the years go by it's going to be more and more nostalgic and it's going to turn into this event rather than this catastrophe.

But for others, September 11th was also remembered as a day that brought people together. Ruth Spencer attended a reunion with construction workers and volunteers she met at Ground Zero.

SPENCER: What I never ever would have ever imagined when I went to Red Cross on September 12th two years ago was that I would find this whole new family. This is definitely the Ground Zero family. These people have become really good friends in many ways. People involved in totally different lives from mine except we all came together over this.

By nighttime, the twin towers of light were shining over lower Manhattan. Mayor Bloomberg watched them from the Staten Island Ferry.

BLOOMBERG: It's not just names it's not just numbers it's human beings, every one of those 2792 people had family that's missing them. I'm just glad that it wasn't my child and have enormous sympathy for those who it was their child. They're the ones who really understand what 9-11 was all about. The rest of us talk about it, but only the family members really understand.

People couldn't help but look up at the lights. Catherine Cherkow of Brooklyn was also riding the ferry.

CHERKOW: It was one of the most beautiful ways to memorialize people and the towers, it's like they're rising to something better. And it's like the souls of the people the souls of the towers, somebody couldn't have designed something better than this.

Depending on where one was standing, the two beams of light appeared to soar from slightly different positions. It was a trick of the eye. But a fitting tribute perhaps to an event whose meaning also continues to shift even while remaining unforgettable. For WNYC I'm Beth Fertig.

WNYC's Andrea Bernstein, Amy Eddings, Fred Mogul, Cindy Rodriguez, Leticia Theodore and Alicia Zuckerman also contributed to this report. Our news engineers were Scott Strickland and Wayne Shulmister. Our producers are Brendan McDonald, Kaari Pitkin and Patricia Willens. John Keefe is the news director.