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The following is an edited version of what appeared in
our local newspaper, The News Times on September 10th 2006 - five years after the 9/11 attack on the United States.
On September 11, 2001, ten of Howard Lasher's friends were having breakfast at Windows on the World in the World
Trade Center's North Tower. Then the planes came.
Not one of the men survived that awful morning, but thanks
to Lasher, founder of the Lasher Group Inc. and their colleague at the American Stock Exchange, they and others who died with
them are remembered by a tribute that has taken on a life of it's own.
Lasher, was devastated by the loss of
his friends, most of whom he had known for more than 25 years. He said he could not just stand by and mourn.
In his first days of grief, he had a feeling that he had to do something for them and their families. So he helped organize
a memorial service at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City that was attended by more than 2,500 people.
But
that wasn't enough for Lasher. "I'd already decided to create a living memorial to them, but I didn't know
what or where," he said.
It was during the New York service, as he watched the Color Guard from Xavier High
School carry the American Flag down the church's center aisle, that the idea of using the flag to honor the victims took
root.
For him the flag represented why his friends perished that day.
"They died because they
were America," he said. "The flag represents everything America stands for - strength, liberty and freedom."
Thinking about the form the memorial should take and its location, he decided to have a flag painted across six
adjoining trees at the entrance to his Route 302 home in Newtown, CT.
In early October 2001, Lasher asked well
known local folk artist, David Merrill, formally of Newtown, to paint the flag on his trees.
"I was very
emotional about it," Merrill recalled. "I felt it would be a great honor to do that for his friends."
Using acrylic artist's paint that doesn't fade, Merrill finished the job in "10 almost perfect, cloudless days,
with truckers blowing their horn as they passed and people stopping to see the work." Since then, the painting has
weathered well, having had only one touch up.
"It's amazing that it's lasted this long," Merrill
said. "But, as long as the trees are standing, the painting will last."
The painting has come to be a
shrine to all those who died on September 11, 2001, as well as a representation of the faith and pride that people have in
this country.
"Bikers, truckers, people from all walks of life and all ages come by on Memorial Day and July
Fourth and lay flowers and cards at the base of the trees," Lasher said. "Some hug the trees. Some cry. It's
as though they are leaving some of their grief here. Someone even proposed in front of it. Some just pull over and stare at
it, lost in thought."
The flag painting has also been photographed countless times. "There was
a young woman from Johns Hopkins who took a photograph of it and sold copies." Lasher said, "and there were
other pictures taken by someone else that were sold at Jacqueline's Luncheonette in Bethel.
That "someone else" was me! Mr. Lasher and I have
met and talked often about the picture and with his permission I am selling items with Old Glory on them. Click here to see items. In appreciation for this opportunity, a portion of my sales is being donated to Howard's favorite charity,
Dream Come True of Western Connecticut.
Lasher is equally proud that a picture of the tree has a prominent place in the World Trade Center Memorial Museum's
exhibit, "9/11 and the American Landscape: Photography by Jonathan Hyman."
For exciting news about "Old Glory" click here.
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