Wedding party from 9/11 photo say found picture shows 'resilience'
NEW YORK -- The woman who worked 13 years to return a wedding photo found in the rubble of the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks is representative of "the best of humanity," said the man who will finally get back the photograph he'd had tacked to his cubicle wall.
Fred Mahe thought he'd never see the photograph again, after his office on the 77th floor of the second World Trade Center tower was obliterated in the Sept. 11 attacks.
But the photograph of him with his college friends at their wedding somehow survived the attacks and for the past 13 years a college professor named Elizabeth Stringer Keefe, who was given the photo by a friend who found it in the ash near Ground Zero, has tried to find its owners.
On every anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Stringer Keefe posted the photo on social media sites or worked with friends to try and find the owner.
"Every year on #911 I post this photo hoping 2 return 2 owner. Found at #groundzero #WTC in 2001. Pls RT," the Cambridge, Mass., woman tweeted Thursday.
Mahe, a guest at the wedding who is seen facing the camera in the photo, contacted Stringer Keefe on Friday after a coworker sent him a story about the photo.
Mahe identified the couple as Christine and Christian Loredo, college friends of his who were married in Aspen, Colo.
In 2001 Mahe, now living in Colorado with his wife and two children, was still on his way to work when the attack started. The wedding photo -- taken just a few months earlier -- was tacked to his cubical wall.
Mahe told ABC News he felt there was special significance that he found out about the photograph the day after the anniversary of the attacks.
"On 9/11 I saw the worst of humanity, (but) on 9/12 I saw the best of humanity," Mahe said. "Elizabeth (Stringer Keefe) is 100 percent 9/12."
On Friday, after Mahe sent Stringer Keefe a message on Linkedin, the pair talked for the first time over the phone. Stringer Keefe told ABC News the pair had an emotional moment talking about the photograph and that she hopes they'll meet up soon.
Mahe said it is incredible that Stringer Keefe managed to be so persistent for so long in looking for the owners of the photograph. and that speaking to her over the phone felt like he was speaking to a good friend.
