Local family's grief remains unchanged

About 60 people came to a ceremony marking the second anniversary.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
SHARON, Pa. -- John Koborie said that public remembrances of the terrorist attacks on this country two years ago allow people to express their sympathies, "but as far as my feelings are concerned, it changes nothing."
Koborie, 77, and his wife, Julianne, of Trumbull Avenue, lost their eldest child, Rebecca, 48, in the attack that destroyed the World Trade Center towers in New York City.
They and their son, John, attended a ceremony Thursday that drew about 60 people, many of them city employees, to Sharon City Hall.
Their loss isn't getting any easier to deal with, despite the passage of time, Koborie said.
"We were so attached. We have a very close family," he said, as he displayed photos taken recently at ground zero and at a new granite memorial at Marsh and McClennan Inc. in New York City.
Rebecca worked for the company, and the memorial lists the names of its employees killed in the attack.
"These are the only things that we have," Koborie said, explaining that no remains of Rebecca have been identified.
There's still some hope, he said, as authorities have told him it could take up to five years to identify all of the body parts collected from the site.
Vulnerable
Rebecca worked on the 97th floor of the North Tower, the first hit by an airplane.
"She was hit directly," Koborie said, adding that he hopes authorities find some part of her "that I can somehow touch" to bring some closure to her death.
Rebecca wasn't the only former Mercer County resident to die in that attack. Ruth Ketler, 43, formerly of Grove City, died when a second plane hit the second tower. She worked on the top floor.
Koborie said his family is grateful for the city's paying homage to Rebecca, and he thanked Mayor David O. Ryan, city council and the community for its support.
Despite the widespread attention to terrorist issues, Koborie feels the United States is "just as vulnerable as it was before, if we let our guard down."
If the government had been as vigilant then as it is now, the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., wouldn't have happened, he said.
Koborie also thinks it is a mistake for airlines to remove air marshals from their aircraft.
The terrorists who commandeered the airplanes used in the attacks had no one to oppose them, he said.
Ryan called the terrorist attacks "an unspeakable tragedy," adding, "I don't think we've gotten over it. I don't think we'll ever get over it."