At somber ceremonies Sunday morning to honor the Massachusetts residents who died in the Sept. 11 attacks 15 years ago, their loved ones said the agony of loss is still acute.
At a wreath-laying in the Boston Public Garden and later during a ceremony in the State House, the families recalled those they lost and described how their lives changed forever on that sunny Tuesday morning in 2001.
Children who were toddlers on the day of the attacks attended the ceremonies Sunday as teenagers. They reminded people how much time has passed, but also how much it still feels like the horror happened yesterday.
“This day never gets easier; it just never gets easier,’’ Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh said at the ceremony in the public garden, held at the 9/11 memorial where the names of the 206 victims from Massachusetts are engraved.
One woman kissed her hand, then placed her fingers on a name. The Mathai family, whose father, Joseph, died in the attacks, helped Walsh move a wreath of white roses in front of the memorial. They listened to the Boston Fire Department a cappella quartet sing “God Bless America.’’
Governor Charlie Baker and Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito also greeted the families in the garden then participated in more ceremonies at the State House that included a reading of the names of the victims from Massachusetts and an award presented in honor of an American Airlines flight attendant who died that day.
Among those gathered was Peg Ogonowski Hatch, whose husband, John, was a pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, which crashed into the north tower. Hatch attended with two of her three daughters, whom she said were 11 and 16 the day of the attacks.
“It’s bittersweet because of what all these people have missed during this 15-year period,’’ Hatch said.
Around the monument in the Boston Public Garden, nearly 3,000 small American flags waved in the grass, placed there at dawn by volunteers to commemorate all the victims of the 9/11 attacks.
Up Beacon Hill, the ceremonies continued in the House chamber where a single trumpet played taps, piercing the solemn air. Family members of those who died took turns reading the names of the 206 Massachusetts victims of the attack.
Among those listening were Maureen Penella and Carolyn Sullivan, who lost their oldest sister, Susan MacKay.
MacKay, a buyer for TJX, was on one of the two planes that hit the Twin Towers in New York City. The sisters said even now the day is painful.
“There has never been closure on any of it,’’ Sullivan said. “You don’t know what to do.’’
Toward the back of the chamber sat Laurel Gay, who lost her brother Peter on Flight 11. Gay knew her brother commuted weekly to Los Angeles, going on Tuesdays and returning on Fridays. Even before she got the official word that day, she knew he was gone.
“You just felt it,’’ she said Sunday, sitting near her other brother, Francis, and his wife.
Peter, a manager at Raytheon with three children, was the second oldest of the family’s seven children who grew up in Taunton. Laurel said she had seen him the weekend before at their cottage on the Cape.
“No one is the same after that,’’ she said.
Later in the morning, an award was given posthumously to George A. Heath, a New Bedford man who died in May defending his wife, Rosemary, and a waitress from a knife attack in a Taunton pizza restaurant.
The Madeline “Amy’’ Sweeney Award for Civilian Bravery was named for the American Airlines flight attendant from Acton who was on Flight 11, the first plane flown into the Twin Towers, and alerted authorities about what was happening on board that morning.
Sweeney’s daughter Anna, 20, who said her mother always put others first, gave the award to a tearful Heath in honor of her 58-year-old husband, George, who was a visual-design instructor at a vocational high school.
“It means the world,’’ Heath said after the ceremony. “It continues his legacy.’’
Families at the ceremonies said some years they want to attend the remembrance events and other years it’s too much. By now, many have gotten to know each other. No one else can understand what they have gone through.
Pamela Hayes came this year and read aloud some of the names during the ceremony, including that of her brother, Robert Hayes, who was on Flight 11.
She marveled that some high school students today weren’t alive for the tragedy and have to learn about it in a textbook.
“It seems like it was a moment ago,’’ she said.
Also Sunday, Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley issued a statement remembering not only the 9/11 victims but all those who have been killed since then in service to the country and to those affected by war.
“As Catholics, our prayer extends to all people who have died in these conflicts and to the tens of thousands of refugees driven from their homes and lands,’’ his statement said.
Later Sunday afternoon, the governor spoke at a memorial ceremony for firefighters, held each year on 9/11 because so many perished that day.
Lauren Pothier attended the ceremony, which was dedicated to her uncle, A. Michael Mullane, who died in January after retiring three years ago from the Boston Fire Department. Her other uncle was also a firefighter, she said.
“I thought it was important for them to recognize what all these firefighters did, especially on 9/11,’’ she said.
Pothier said her uncles were always eager to help others, both in and out of Boston. After 9/11, they regularly went to New York to help out.
“This was their other family,’’ she said. “They lived and breathed it.’’
Globe correspondent Felicia Gans contributed to this report. Laura Krantz can be reached at laura.krantz@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @laurakrantz.
