Courtesy of Green familyA 2006 family portrait shows Christina Green with brother Dallas and parents John and Roxanna.
In a fitting tribute to the birthday and life of 9-year-old Christina Green, the National 9-11 flag taken from the World Trade Center will be sent and displayed at her funeral on Thursday in Tucson.
The 20-by-30 foot flag was the largest flag to have survived the collapse of the twin towers.
Christina was born on 9/11 in 2001 and had always been proud and interested in her birthday. She was one of six people killed in a shooting spree Saturday that also injured U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The flag was with FDNY Firefighter Jimmy Sands on Tuesday evening at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York awaiting a flight to Arizona, says Jeff Parnell, spokesman for the New York Says Thank You Foundation that displays the flag at events across the country.
"If snowstorms don't cancel it," he said, "it will be here (Wednesday)."
He heard Christina's mother talking on a news program about how "Christina looked at 9/11 as a holiday . . . and looked for all the hopeful things that came out of it."
The flag, he says, is not a symbol of 9/11, but "it showed what happened on 9/12, we got through this as a community and Tucson is going to get through this."
The foundation called the St. Odilia Catholic Church, where Christina received First Communion, to get in touch with the family. It will be displayed at her funeral at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.
The family is "delighted," says Theresa Bier, 74, parish administrator. "They feel honored to have this because it was special to Christina: 'I was born on this day, I was something good that came into the world.' "
Sands will transport the flag, folded into a small triangle, in a plastic case.
The flag, of which about 40 percent was burned away in the tower collapse, was stitched back together several years ago. Now, on the 10th anniversary year of 9/11, the foundation is asking people to help stitch it back to its original 13-stripe format using pieces of flags to be retired in each state. The foundation is asking heroes, first responders and others to help in the restoration project. Christina's family will be asked to help, too.
When the flag is complete, it will become part of the permanent collection of the National September 11 Memorial Museum being built at the World Trade Center
"It's just a 50-pound American flag," Parnell says, "that has a tremendous amount of significance."
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