Twenty years from the day America was attacked as it had never been before and we seemed to lose whatever sense of national security we had left, Newtown, too, remembered 9/11/2001.

Many of our current and former residents lost someone they knew, and more knew of someone who did; tragically, there were those who lost someone they loved. Certainly, even Newtowners who did not know anyone directly involved were nonetheless deeply affected by the happenings of that day, and since.

Although the precise numbers are subject to interpretations and statistical nuances, the latest details from history.com state that a total of 2,996 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks, including 19 terrorist hijackers aboard the four airplanes involved. Citizens of 78 countries died in New York, Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania.

The site in and around the World Trade Center — Ground Zero — saw most of those losses: 2,763 souls, including 343 firefighters and paramedics, 23 New York City police officers, and 37 Port Authority police officers who struggled to evacuate the buildings and save those trapped on the floors above.

At the Pentagon, 189 people were killed, including 64 on American Airlines Flight 77, the airliner that struck the building.

And on United Flight 93, 44 people died when that plane crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, never reaching its intended target — widely believed to be either the White House or the Capitol where both the Senate and House were in session — because its crew and passengers fought back against the terrorists.

Since then, thousands more, including responders; recovery and cleanup workers; and residents of lower Manhattan, have lost their lives due to illnesses related to the World Trade Center site. Millions more continue to be heartsick and traumatized by the events of that fateful September morning.

On September 11, 2021, under a clear blue sky much like the one many of us admired on our way to work or school on that Tuesday morning 20 years ago, around 3,000 people on motorcycles rolled through town. The annual CT United Ride has grown each year to become a powerful tribute to and a very moving remembrance of the events of that day. But residents know that anyone who finds themselves in Newtown can seek out inspiring reminders of 9/11 here all the time.

There is a replica, easily visible on the Botsford Fire Rescue headquarters near Monroe, of the famous image snapped by Thomas E. Franklin of The Record newspaper of firefighters raising the US flag above the ruins at ground zero.

Resident Howard Lasher’s privately commissioned David Merrill work replicating an unfurled American flag across a grove of trees near the Bethel town line on Route 302 is both a personal memorial and public reminder to those entering town from the west.

And on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the Newtown Woman’s Club has cast that heart-stirring grove of trees in pewter for the club’s 2021 holiday ornament. Now, many more, near or far, can keep this small remembrance of loss, survival, and Newtown close to their hearts each holiday season, or perhaps year round.

And so it is while most of the nation and world look to the past on occasion, revisiting, remembering, and contemplating 9/11 on its somber anniversary every September, Newtown stands quietly, respectfully; steadfast and dedicated as a community, offering our own humble tributes to those who were lost or still suffer every day.