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| A portion of the exterior of the mausoleum at Mount St. Peter's Cemetery. |
I had never been to that cemetery before and was impressed at how beautifully the grounds are maintained.
As I waited for the ceremony to begin, I gazed up at the beautiful blue sky and thought of how eerily similar the sky looked on another Tuesday morning - Sept. 11, 2001 - when terrorists attacked the United States. Tuesday was the 11th anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Archbishop Henry J. Mansell of the Archdiocese of Hartford blessed the expanded mausoleum, and told the crowd gathered there he was thinking of that fateful day in 2001 as he looked up at the blue sky.
He told a story, which had a happy ending, about his nephew's fiancee being caught in one of the Twin Towers after the planes hit.
Mansell said she refused to turn around and go back up the stairs to her office, as she was told to do.
She escaped, she and his nephew got married, and they now have three children, he said.
Mansell said the architectural beauty of the mausoleum shows respect for all who are laid to rest there.
And he said experiencing "the magnificent sight looking up toward the heavens" offered all who visit an opportunity for reflection.
"This is not the end," he said. "It's a step to a larger world that awaits us."
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