Sept. 11 Places And Memories: Lake Cochituate

Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Nearly 3000 people died that day. Two-hundred-and-six of them had strong ties to Massachusetts. They left behind not only their loved ones, but an invisible imprint on places around the state.

Judy Larocque died on Sept. 11, 2001, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11.

Her daughters are Danielle Lemack and Carie Lemack.

Danielle: Mom grew up on Lake Cochituate, as did we, so she spent most of her life here. This, to me, would be Mom’s Point, where we would come. Really, throughout our lives, we would always do things on Lake Cochituate and this point became a really important part of her life, where should we often times be with her dog, Naboo, and kind of find peace from the daily tolls of life. (She) could find herself and relax on a daily basis. She came out here at least twice a day, every day.

Carie: I think of some of the funny things, too, that happened here. Like, when we lost Naboo’s ball down the hill and he fell down the hill trying to get it.

Danielle: While there’s serenity to it, it’s also our childhood. It’s swimming every day and playing on our rafts.

Carie: A lot of the times we would just come on walks with Mom and have those mother-daughter talks that you always want to be able to have and we were so lucky that we had a relationship with Mom that we could have those kinds of talks all the time. I feel like this place is symbolic, to me, of that.

Danielle: There’s a closeness to Mom here that we’ve always had during our life. Even when we weren’t living in Framingham, any time we came back here this is one of the first things we did and we made sure we did it often.

I don’t know why, I feel like the spot we’re in is, for me, my “Wizard of Oz” place. It’s green everywhere and the ground is carpeted with orange pine needles. Right now it’s the end of summer so the trees are green and the lake is very still and I just look around, and I feel like I’m away from it all right now.

We don’t have her remains but we have her in our hearts and her spirit carries on — through us, through my children. And this location is a place where we can really connect. We still feel her here.

Carie: Yeah.

More:

10 Years Later: Remembering 9/11