By Sara Feijo
Packard never met Bodley. She met her father, Dairell Bodley, who was wearing a picture of Deora around his neck, during a visit to the Peace Abbey.
“I saw how sorrowful he was,” Packard said. “I gave him a kiss on the cheek and said ‘I hope your life will become better.'”
Dairell Bodley died in a motorcycle accident in 2003, two years after his daughter’s death.
Attendees walked to the Sherborn Fire Station a few minutes before noon to honor the firemen killed in action during the World Trade Center attack 10 years ago.
Three firemen and one police officer walked with attendees back to the Peace Abbey, where they gathered around the statue of Mary and listened in silence to the names of those killed during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
At about 12:10 p.m., the 60 attendees walked across the Peace Abbey towards the right corner of the entrance, where the memorial stone stood.
State Rep. David Linsky addressed the audience after Connie and Bruce Taylor sang “Make Me a Seed of Peace.”
“Peace to all,” Linsky said. “That’s the most important message you can give.”
Sherborn firefighters laid a helmet down next to the memorial stone as a symbol of the courage and sacrifice of the 343 firefighters who died on Sept. 11, 2011.
Chaplain and program coordinator Dot Walsh led the closing prayer.
“Unknown civilians killed in war. People like us. Children, mothers, fathers, all of those people all over the world who lose their lives just because they’re in their homes or cars or just doing what they do in daily life,” Walsh said. “The stone has much, much feeling.”
After the final prayer, attendees were invited to touch the stone, leave daises next to it and write their thoughts and prayers in a prayer book located to the left of the stone.
“The message, I think, [is] we all belong to the human race,” said Betsy Lussier, an attendee. “Remember we’re all human beings together, and try to see the good in everybody.”
The original Memorial Stone for Unknown Civilians was unveiled and dedicated by Muhammad Ali on May 4, 1994. Replicated stones have traveled the United States, Ireland, England, Japan and South Korea.
“The message on the stone is unknown civilians because even though [there were] almost 3,000 people [that] were killed that day, at the Towers, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania, … what about everyone who has lost their lives?” Walsh said. “The hope of the Peace Abbey is that this is the year for change.”
See more photos here.