Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette Diane Higgins sits behind the volumes of poems she has written for the nearly 3,000 people who died on Sept. 11, 2001. On Saturday in New York City, she will present the poems to the victims' families as part of the America's 9-11 Memorial Quilts ceremony.

By Bob Batz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Many people's lives were changed by the events of Sept. 11, 2001, but not in the way that Diane Huggins' was.

The Washington County mother of three set out to write a poem for every person who died in the attacks that day.

Nearly 3,000 of them.

When she was profiled in the Post-Gazette in September 2004, she had finished about 720 poems and was continuing to work on them just about every day.

On Aug. 16, she passed the 1,200 mark, having written a record nine that day. Her revised deadline for finishing as many as possible had become the upcoming fifth anniversary.

On Saturday in New York City, the nonprofit group she's been working with, America's 9/11 Memorial Quilts, will be dedicating and presenting to the victims' families five of the massive quilts that were made by volunteers around the country.

Also during the ceremony, at the Marriott Financial Center, Mrs. Huggins will present nine bound and alphabetized volumes of poems she's finished sofar. She even will say a few words, including:

"I have never counted myself a poet in any way and still do not, but it was the only way I knew to honor these everyday heroes whose lives have touched me so deeply and profoundly."

The prospects of speaking and being in New York City have been scaring her for weeks.

"Oh, I'm terrified," says the woman who will ride up on an overnight bus from Weirton, W.Va., with her minister's wife and perhaps one of her two daughters, and then ride right back to tiny Eldersville.

There, on Sept. 11, she'll hold the memorial ceremony in her front yard as she has for the past four years -- this time for her family and close neighbors.

And then she'll get back to writing poems.

As she plans to say to the victims' families in New York, "I still have much work to do, and my commitment will not waver in completing a tribute poem to honor every individual taken from you on Sept. 11."

She's not sure what will happen to the poems or the quilts or if they will indeed be included in the planned World Trade Center Memorial Museum. That will be announced on Saturday.

An amateur who only dabbled with religious poetry before this, Ms. Huggins, 52, works at a computer in her living room, which is decorated with a jar of dirt from Ground Zero and other 9/11 mementos, many of them sent by appreciative relatives of the victims.

She starts and structures most of the page-long poems the same way but works in details specific to each person that she finds through research and by talking with their family members.

For example, the one she wrote in honor of Joseph Michael Doyle, a 25-year-old government bond supervisor at Cantor Fitzgerald, begins:

You were working in the towers that sunny September day
You didn't know that evil plans were well under way. ...

Later, she weaves in personal information:

You would come home from work and play with your two children you adored.
You were a gifted athlete and an avid Packers fan for sure. ...

The late Mr. Doyle's father is Bill Doyle, who is a leader in the Coalition of 9/11 Families and many other related groups. He'll be the one accepting the poems for the families Saturday, which he says, "I honestly believe [it's] going to be the main event of this year." (It's not open to public, but a preview is from 4 to 9 p.m. Friday.)

Mr. Doyle has encouraged families to participate in Mrs. Huggins' poetic project, which he calls "wonderful."

He says, "The poems have become part of the healing process." He praises her 4 ³/₄-year stick-to-itness, not just to the writing, but also to so compassionately communicating with family members. He also praises Jeannie Ammermann, the president of the quilts' group.

"They've become, inadvertently, mental health care workers, grief counselors, because a lot of people do love their effort and do correspond with them. Their role has expanded in a way they didn't expect."

Mrs. Huggins says she doesn't think any of her poems are good, but feedback from the families keeps her going. "When I feel inadequate, which I do a lot, they kind of help me. They give me the strength. Maybe I don't like it but if it means something to them, that's important."

Working so much on such a sad subject takes its toll.

"There are days I just have to shut down and walk away," she says.

After breaking her wrist this past November, she couldn't write much for weeks and became depressed. But then she resumed, determined that these victims not be forgotten.

In addition to the books she's taking to New York, she's completed a book of poems for all the victims of the Flight 93 crash in Somerset County, which is to go with a Flight 93 quilt into the memorial there next year. She's finishing up a separate book for all the victims at the Pentagon, which also has its own quilt to be dedicated next year.

Her new deadline to finish all 2,973 poems? "My ideal goal would be a year, but I think I'm pushing that a little bit. So I'm going to say a year and a half."