now diane sawyer with one extraordinary hour of hope through the eyes of the children who never knew their fathers and the resilient mothers who raised them. ♪ you're going to live forever in me ♪ now, on the 20th anniversary of 9/11, diane sawyer reunites with the children whose fathers died that day. >> i would just want one day. i think that's all i would ever want. >> i think i would let him know we're happy, but he already knows that. >> the babies she first met two decades ago. now those mothers, those families. >> she's like the strongest person i've ever met. >> i love you, buddy. >> their resilience, strength, and love. >> mom's our superhero. i'm not going to cry. >> you're a good kid. >> young adult. asteri asterisk. ♪ you're going to live forever

in me ♪ sunrise 2021. we're preparing for a big reunion, and people we met long ago are streaming toward new york. >> we can see people that we haven't seen in so many years. >> i am walking to my gate in boston. >> there are some things that we share together that no other people share. >> on the flight to new york. >> i'm also on my way to new york's brooklyn botanic garden to meet with people i first met two decades ago. after the day that changed so many lives. charlie gibson and i are live on the air, september 11, 2001. i'm diane sawyer. it's tuesday, september 11, 2001. it was an everyday kind of morning on "gma." charlie and i were casually

talking about commuting to work. it is now 48 minutes after 8:00. >> a commercial pause. >> stay with us. >> and as we're coming back on the air, the breaking news. >> we want to tell you what we know as we know it. we just got a report that there has been some sort of explosion at the world trade center in new york city. and when the second plane hits, that's me gasping, my god. oh, my god. my god. once we're off the air, i start walking from times square down through the city to the world trade center. night falls. there's no light, there's no electricity, and see silhouetted firemen, silhouetted ems workers. around me, the paper from decimated offices. a kind of mournful foliage. you just keep thinking how important all of these seemed to someone 24 hours ago. thank you for coming in. over the next days, charlie and i would talk to the families of the nearly 3,000 people who died

that day. and that's when we first met so many very young women, a lot of them newlyweds. now new widows who were also pregnant. >> 40 full weeks. >> and so for the next 20 years, we set out on the long path ahead. we followed these women as they desperately searched for the one person who was their whole life. tuesday, 8:48 a.m. >> jill, there's a fire at work. i love you. tell everyone "i love you." i don't know if i'm gonna be okay here. i love you so much. >> does it surprise you the thing about him that you miss the most? >> yeah, it's mostly little things. coming in the door every night is a big thing. door go up, see ds go to age

>> reporter: we were with them as they grappled with the mystery that the father of their babies seemed simply to have vanished. for so many there would be no remains. >> we still hope that they'll find something or dna will provide us with something, but other than that, we have no idea what building he ran into or if he was on the street. no idea. >> barbara atwood had nothing to put in her husband's casket but his fireman's cap. terilyn esse also had to live in that mystery until the day three and a half months after 9/11, she received a call. her husband jim's body had been found. >> terilyn, take this ring. >> as a sign. >> as a sign. >> of my love and fidelity. >> of my love and fidelity.

>> we did have, um, find, you know, his wedding ring. it was still on his hand. so, when they returned that to me, i was just, i felt like a little bit of a miracle. >> reporter: we are there as their babies are born. more than 60 babies arrive in that first year. and we're there watching as these babies grow. with them at age 1, with them at age 5, and again together at age 10. which brings us to this day, 7,300 sunrises later. >> thank you! >> reporter: those young wives are coming back. and coming with them, those babies almost 20 years old. first up at the door, i see someone familiar. hi! >> i want to hug you. >> reporter: i want to hug you,

too. it's jenna and her son gabriel. that laughing little boy now towering over me. i'm sorry, i have to just gawk. it really it amazing isn't it? as i look at jenna's smile, i can't help but think about the young widow with grief etched on her face 20 years ago. it was her husband ari who had given her the vitality and laughter in her day. he was a 29-year-old senior vice president in finance who was just at the world trade center for a conference. they were days away from celebrating their first wedding anniversary. and now jenna tells us she rediscovered her husband's laughter inside her and in his son, who was born six days after the tower fell. across the way, i see another woman, a brilliant actress and singer who 20 years ago told us she was so broken she thought of giving it all up. as you'll see later, she learned

how to reclaim her singular song. these are all members of a kind of involuntary sorority from all walks of life. an air force captain who told us 20 years ago she was sitting on one side of the pentagon, five months pregnant, when she felt the plane hit the other side where her husband worked. a nurse who told us the first time we met that her husband happened to be in the tower on the 104th floor to install wallpaper. >> he was a wallpaper hanger. that was his first day on the job. as he told me, when he was leaving in the morning, he was going to be there until 9:00. you do realize how fragile every day is. >> reporter: and then i recognize a quiet family at a picnic table. the larsens, who came this day as a kind of tribute to all the heroes who tried to help so many others survive. the mother grew up a girl from

queens, who married a boy from down the block. >> squinting her eyes like crazy. >> reporter: he became a dad of four and a firefighter. and we discovered it was 13 years after their father died that these children first heard a recording that confirmed the full measure of his courage on that day. this is the sound of his voice in the south tower on 9/11. >> 15 irons 15. >> it was captured on a fire department dispatch. >> go ahead, irons. >> reporter: irons is the name they call him. it is given to the crewmember who carries the impossibly heavy iron tools, the ones used for prying open doors. firefighter scott larson is climbing toward the 78th floor where the plane has hit. he is purposeful, he is steady. >> just got a report from the director of morgan stanley. 78 seems to have taken the brunt of this stuff.

there's a lot of bodies. they say the stairway is clear all the way up though. >> all right. 10-4, scott. >> reporter: he is one of the first who has already made it up 48 flights of stairs. >> what floor are you on? >> 48 right now. >> all right, more people are coming up behind you. >> reporter: with his heavy iron tools, he continues to climb on. 34 minutes later, the tower collapses. >> never forget how brave people were, and people gave up their life to help someone that they didn't even know. and that's something that i feel is important. >> reporter: his daughter brenda is now a second grade teacher and says childhood memories may be small, but they are potent. she and her dad at disneyland loved goofy. so she slipped a pair of goofy ears into his casket. >> people take things for

granted, and it's hard, especially as we get older, it's hard. >> reporter: it's interesting you say, especially as we get older. >> and i read a quote one time, i love this quote. it says that grief is not a place to stay, but it's a passage and it's not a sign of weakness, it's a sign of love. and you know you grieve so hard because you loved so hard, and it's just -- through your life it's hard, but it's a new passage to something else. >> reporter: across the table her oldest brother is living his tribute to his dad. >> my name is scott brian larsen. i'm named after my father, scott larsen. i look exactly like my father, everything from the beauty marks on my face to every single thing, identical. >> reporter: and exactly like his father, he's now a firefighter, too, going to work every day in his father's firehouse. and did mom ever say, are you sure? maybe don't?

>> no. she was my biggest supporter through it. i couldn't have got through the academy, what they call the 18 weeks, without her. >> without me doing his laundry and packing his lunch every day! >> reporter: truth be told. >> yeah. making the hero. >> great men have walked this place, great men have worked here. i can continue on his legacy. and i try to do the best i can every day, and hopefully it'll make him proud. >> reporter: so what about all the babies we gathered together 20 years ago? what has what has happened to them over these two decades? the howlers. the unstoppable forces of life who teach us how you can learn to remember someone you never met. oh, i had neveseen a picture of her until i got on ancestry. it was like touching the past. my great aunt signed up to serve in the union army as a field nurse.

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>> reporter: 20 years ago, we set out on misson impossible. 63 tiny forces of nature unleashed in one room. for a nation reeling after the towers fell, they were 63 reasons to believe in the future. but could we possibly corral them into a photograph? >> let's move them in fast. >> reporter: they squirm. all right, do you think we have a shot in the world? >> i don't think so. >> reporter: they howl as their little friends look on, baffled. >> we need one more car seat. >> reporter: they tumble. fall in love. >> oh, my goodness. >> reporter: and they go rogue.

>> hello! >> reporter: finally, we get it. i'm holding a twin in each arm. and those twins, 20 years years later -- >> they were suggesting that they pick you up. >> reporter: and here they all are now. the crawlers. the howlers. tumbler one, tumbler two, all grown up today. nobody's falling off out of their chair. it was so hilarious. not for you perhaps. and i began to get an immediate answer to one of my questions from long ago. would these babies who never met their fathers end up looking out through his eyes, smiling his smile?

♪ the children showed us you can find ways to remember someone you never met. we first saw them doing that when they were only 5. >> my daddy's name is kevin, and i'm kevin. kevin, kevin. >> who are you named after? >> my daddy. >> where is your daddy? >> in heaven. >> yeah. >> reporter: what's the thing that stays in your mind? >> his look. >> reporter: how do you mean? >> it's him. he has his hat on, ladder 21. all his gear. like, when i'm trying to go to sleep, i look in the picture and i look in the mirror. it looks kind of like me. and he -- it's looking in the eyes. sometimes i have these dreams,

like, when you can bring a person back to life, and him. and then i wake up. >> reporter: and that little boy today is a college student at syracuse, wearing a chain with his dad's badge number. >> this chain that my son is wearing, i gave his father for his 30th birthday. and joe wore it every day. and for whatever reason, on 9/11, he did not put it on. so i gave it to him today. >> reporter: under a tree across the lawn, some of the older siblings have gathered, sharing memories of that time. >> i made sure to do everything to make him proud. >> reporter: jillian suarez was a 9-year-old girl at her daddy's funeral. her father, officer ramon suarez, jumped in a taxi, ran to the crumbling towers, and these are pictures of him saving a pregnant women, then

going back to save a woman stuck on the stairs, unable to move or breathe. and then back into the building. he did not come out. today the little girl at that funeral has become a police officer, too. >> i made sure i got his badge. >> reporter: you got his badge? >> yeah. >> reporter: and sasha cardona also brought something to our gathering. >> i actually still have one of the missing signs that i put out there. >> reporter: she remembers how she and her mom walked from hospital to hospital that day. >> dear daddy, please come back. >> reporter: jose cardona was a clerk at a brokerage firm. sasha was 11 years old. >> and i will always have you in my heart.

>> i was 5 when it happened. i have a lot of these. there's one in my car. there's one in my room. these are everywhere. sometimes when i was in class i used to imagine him just walking through and coming to take me home. i would just want one day, just start to finish. 12:00 to 12:00. just talk, laugh, go do stuff. and that's all i would ever want. >> reporter: in 2001, about 3% of new york city firefighters were black. 12 of them diedthat day, including josh's dad sean. >> there's definitely something to be said about a black man who would choose to be a firefighter in a time where there weren't a lot. someone who's fearless, someone who's literally willing to run into a burning building. >> reporter: josh powell is now graduating from morehouse college, planning to be a doctor, inspired by his dad and the doctors who have saved so many lives during covid. >> when this pandemic happened,

a lot of people were running away, but there were many people who ran towards it, who said, we're going to help all these people, and that's what i want to do. >> reporter: and what about grace danahy? born after her dad died, that high octane dad who could ride the rapids and race down the road on a dirt bike. a dad who had a favorite band and a favorite song. >> patrick loved the eagles. and "take it easy" is one of his favorite songs. ♪ take it easy ♪ >> reporter: his three elegant girls pay tribute to that song, dad style. >> so they all have a tattoo. ♪ take it easy ♪ >> reporter: oh, there it is. >> yep, right here. >> reporter: can you do the whole song? >> i probably could, but not on the spot. >> reporter: patrick danahy was an investment manager. ♪ baa baa black sheep, have you

any wool? ♪ >> reporter: his daughter treasures his t-shirts. you said, mary, that she had the ending before she had the beginning. >> she did. >> this i used to sleep with every night, too. >> reporter: but tonight, grace has a message to send -- don't let longing for the dad you lost make you miss the one you have. nearly half of the moms at the gathering have remarried. grace's stepdad is a quiet, gentle man her mom met in church. little grace was 4 years old when i met andy, too. and he told me he seeks patrick's help in prayer. >> what did you pray for? >> patrick, help me be a good dad, be a good husband. what would you do? >> reporter: and what do you call andy? >> dad. >> reporter: oh, how great! over the years in sickness and in health, grace watched her steadfast new dad. he nursed her mother through

breast cancer. and so, when illness struck again this year -- >> well, i'd love if andy's ready and wants to come up. >> yeah, mary. just make sure he holds the railing, grace. >> reporter: grace was at andy's side. >> hey, dad, do you want to come up? here, i can do it. >> so in early may, andy was diagnosed with a brain tumor. fortunately, it was benign. do you remember what you were gonna say? >> no. >> it's okay. it's all right. he loses his short term memory from the surgery. >> reporter: when we meet again, not long ago at the botanic garden -- >> and andy's well. andy's well. >> reporter: do you still say a prayer every now and then to patrick? >> i sure do. i sure do. >> reporter: so little grace teaches us all how you can weave a tapestry of family love that can stretch all the way from the gentle dad she's protecting now to the adventurous dad somewhere watching over her. coming up, a blank canvas.

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>> ma'am, you're going to have to wait. >> my mom -- man. >> mom's our superhero. i'm not going t d rrs ♪ with a superhero mom who can also light up broadway. ♪ who would ever have believed anything could knock her down? >> mr. and mrs. calvin j. gooding could like to thank you all. >> reporter: lachanze gooding, with her new husband calvin, a securities trader on the 104th floor of tower one. >> all calvin did was go to work that day. his job meant sitting behind a desk selling stocks. i mean, it's not a dangerous position. he just went to work, and he hasn't come home yet. >> reporter: she kept his clothes in the drawers. >> it's something about knowing that his sock drawer is here and

it's full of his socks that makes me -- that comforts me a little bit. you know? i don't know why, but he's not really gone if his clothes are here. >> reporter: a month after he died, little zaya was born, and lachanze and calvin already had another daughter who was just 1 1/2 years old. one time little celia saw her mom crying and asked her to stop. lachanze did, but she was still so exhausted she didn't think she could go back on the broadway stage. >> i was in a workshop rehearsal. i have a 2-year-old, and she was 6 months at the time. and she woke up at 3:00 am, and i was dead tired. and for the first time i really felt like, you know what? i can't do this. >> reporter: but she decided the biggest gift she could give her two daughters was to see her at least try everyday to get up and do the impossible. so one performance at a time, over the years she heads off to work at night when grandma comes. >> all right, mom. >> okay, see you later.

>> okay. >> break a leg. >> thanks. >> yeah. >> reporter: nearly 20 years ago, i saw lachanze gooding in the garden with her clapping baby girl. an zaya today. how are you? >> i'm good. how are you? >> look at that baby. see how cute you are? >> reporter: that baby girl is now a linguistics student in university and heading to japan to perfect her japanese. zaya who not only saw her mom find her song again, she saw her back on the stage. lachanze starred in "the color purple," and inside her powerful voice, the whole landscape of her life. ♪ got my house ♪ ♪ still keep the cold out ♪ ♪ got my chair when my body can't hold out ♪

>> there is still something broken, you know? and that's just a part of how we exist. we carry it with us. >> reporter: she won the tony award. >> tony award goes to -- lachanze, "the color purple!" >> reporter: and that other little daughter celia saw how you pick yourself up and become a broadway star again. now celia is in "jagged little pill," and she's been nominated for a tony too, with a shoutout to her hero. >> my mom is here! >> reporter: as we walk around the gathering reconnecting with old friends, we learn that for every woman the path was different. >> about eight years after tim's death, i joined the mommy wine club. the party was me, myself and i, alone in my closet. i knew i needed to move into recovery.

addiction is a battle i fight. so, grief has changed faces. it's morphed. >> reporter: and what about florence amoako from ghana? she and her husband victor came to america to create a better life for their children. florence hoped someday to have a nicer home and build for their future. for three years, her husband got up every day before dawn and worked the morning clean-up shift at windows on the world. >> i want to remember him as victor that i knew. i'm sorry. >> reporter: so for most of the last two decades, florence has worked her same job as a hotel housekeeper, cleaning 14 rooms a day. she helped her oldest daughter become a nurse. but now her younger daughter, born just two months after 9/11, has health issues.

so that dream of a home is distant. >> so, it hasn't been easy, but we still have hope. >> reporter: and hope is still the light on the path of two of the other women whose husbands died on 9/11. their husbands were on the planes that crashed into the world trade center. and one of the young widows learned that the leader of the hijackers, mohammed atta, was sitting just a few feet away from her husband, dave. she is susan retik. >> imagine if mohamed atta had looked at dave, and instead of seeing an abstract enemy had seen him as a human being. >> reporter: so, 18 years ago she decided to teach her children what you do with a mountain of anger and grief. >> you're going to give me hatred. i'm going to put out love. >> reporter: susan and that other 9/11 widow, her friend

patti quigley, got on their bikes at ground zero with a big idea. they asked people to sponsor them on a bike ride, money to help women in afghanistan. they nursed sore legs but their first bike ride was nearly 300 miles. along the way did you say to yourself were we crazy? >> i think pretty much every step of the way. >> reporter: and over the decades they have raised more than $9 million to aid thousands of afghan widows and send 1,000 afghan girls to school. and even tonight after the horrifying turmoil in afghanistan, they vow they will not give up their fight. >> do any of the children go to school? but you got to keep going. you know, if you always just stopped because of the what if's, you wouldn't get anywhere. >> reporter: and tomorrow morning when these moms set off again, someone you met years ago will be right there alongside them. >> yeah, woo! >> reporter: susan retik's baby

dina, now 19 and biking, too. ♪ i see me in you ♪ >> reporter: this is lachanze and celia gooding singing together. it was a virtual charity event, the broadway song "next to normal." ♪ i don't need a life that's normal ♪ ♪ that's way too far away ♪ ♪ but something next to normal would be okay ♪ ♪ we'll get by ♪ ♪ we'll get by ♪ after my dvt blood clot... i was uncertain... was another around the corner? or could things take a different turn? i wanted to help protect myself. my doctor recommended eliquis. eliquis is proven to treat and help prevent another dvt or pe blood clot. almost 98 percent of patients on eliquis didn't experience another. ...and eliquis has significantly less major bleeding

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my name is terilyn patrick. this is tack jack. >> hi, jack. >> reporter: the writer anne lamott says sometimes its a small act of grace that saves you when you need it the most. for terilyn esse it was a simple sentence from someone she met at our first gathering all those years ago. >> my strongest memory is really baraheen. she was, you know, sort of off to the side during all that filming, and i saw her there and i was just compelled to go over to her.

and then i found out that she was having issues just walking around new york. >> reporter: baraheen ashrafi, a muslim woman, widow, a new mom, and after 9/11, someone being taunted when she walked down the street. >> people don't realize, don't understand what i have inside. i am a victim also. >> reporter: they were two women from very two different worlds. >> james. >> james. >> take this ring. >> take this ring. >> as a sign. >> as a sign -- >> reporter: terilyn had just celebrated her one-year anniversary with her husband jim who was a bond broker at cantor fitzgerald. baraheen at a wedding arranged by her parents in bangladesh. her husband was a physicist who decided to come the u.s. for opportunity, even though the work he could find was as a banquet waiter at windows on the world. we were there when baraheen had to learn how to do something always done by her husband. she took driving lessons.

>> i am trying to not feel nervous, but if you open the mind, you'll see i'm feeling little bit, a little bit nervous. >> you did fine. this is going to be your temporary license. >> thank you very much. >> you're welcome. it's valid for three months. they will send the permanent license to your home automatically. that takes about three weeks. so it's not necessary to go in to motor vehicles. okay? all right? i'm going to need your signature. [ crying ] >> reporter: her baby boy farqad was born just 2 days after the attack. and as we saw her through the years, we noticed how she gave him strength from his dad. >> you are happy. i know. he is seeing you. and he is so proud of you, and

you make him pud. r s ee noticed, too. terilyn, cradling her infant jack. she p. >> i said to her, wow, how -- what do you say to your children when they ask where their dad is? and she looked at me with these gorgeous, big brown eyes that were filled with tears, and she was so beautiful. and she said, i tell them to close their eyes and look inside their heart. and i've never forgotten it. i came up with a little kind of thing that we did together. you know, where does daddy jim live? and he would say in heaven. and who does he live with the the angels. and when you want to talk to daddy, jim, you close your eyes and look inside. and he would say my heart. >> mama. >> where does your dada live? >> heaven. >> heaven. and who does he live with? >> god. >> and who else? >> angels. >> angels.

and when you want to talk to daddy jim, you close your eyes and look inside where? >> heart. >> and where is your heart? oh, yes, that's nice, love. daddy loves you. >> reporter: baby jack is now 19 years old and grateful for the mother who tried so hard to help him keep his dad close. >> i just appreciate everything she's done, because she's like the strongest person i've ever met. yeah. really appreciate her. >> thanks, buddy. i love you, buddy. i love you. >> reporter: in their backyard, there is a tree. it is surrounded by stones which say, close your eyes, look inside your heart. and if you're wondering, where is baraheen tonight? well, she's been carpooling kids over all these years. her daughter is now in law school. her baby boy now in college.

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>> reporter: on september 11th, so many of us remember a nation pulling together to prove that fear and hatred had not won. >> everywhere you turned, you saw an american flag. driving down the streets, it was just like a tunnel of american flags. >> just a sign of solidarity. >> it unified us somehow. >> reporter: the women tell us hundreds of strangers sent what they could. >> stuffed animals for the kids and books. and just, like, they didn't even know us. >> macadamia nuts from hawaii. teddy bears from everywhere. >> i had one woman, who gave me, like, $1.50, and she said this is all she could give and she's a waitress and she'll send more

money when she can. >> reporter: david casimes was a baby when he received a quilt, and he wished the women at a place called joann's fabrics knew that he slept under their quilt for years. >> i think it's something that i could hold onto at night, you know. the people from joann's fabrics in pennsylvania were supporting me, and they never know where that quilt went. >> hi, david. >> reporter: so we tracked down some of those kind strangers from pennsylvania who made a blanket that consoled a little boy. >> i'm just so thankful that he's cherished it and it gave him comfort over the years. >> i hope you will hold it in your heart forever. >> reporter: and another connection. remember jillian suarez, now a police officer. her father was the policeman who rescued two women from the tower. >> this is my actual first time coming down here since 9/11. [ sighs ] >> reporter: jillian is there with crystal tyson on this first time back. tyson was suffering from smoke when jillian's father found her. >> in this picture, i'm gasping

for my breath and he's trying to make sure that i get to the ambulance. then after he put me in, he didn't come back. >> reporter: and throughout the dy, other moms told us about other small miracles along the way. holly o'neill melville remembered being brave enough to sing to her laughing husband at her wedding. >> it was crazy scary for me, but i sang "dream a little dream." ♪ dream a little dream of me ♪ >> you know, we got married and three months later, he was killed. >> reporter: she's a social worker but says about ten years ago she realized she had never reclaimed the spirit of that girl. >> the trauma of that sort of ripped away a lot of my self-confidence and my identity. ♪ do you think it's easy ♪

>> reporter: her daughter sean, a singer and songwriter, had an idea. her mom should find a local band and take a chance again. ♪ going to use my, my, my imagination, oh ♪ >> reporter: hello, honey. oh, my gosh. look at you. and you're singing. >> she has a gig i'm bringing a couple of my friends to, and i'm so excited. >> reporter: sew great -- my mom has a gig. [ cheers ] >> reporter: and as the sun begins to set on our gathering, we have an idea. a blank canvas. we ask the kids to use it to send a kind of message to the world. this generation of kids who have lived through so much trauma -- school shootings, financial collapse, and now covid -- carrying inside them a kind of

strength from the day the nation stood still. >> i have the tools to be -- to recognize, okay, i'm losing something and then this is how i'm going to deal with it. >> it goes back to the whole 9/11 thing. you have to cherish the time you have with people because things can change in an instant. >> you got rollers, you got brush. >> reporter: they pick up their brushes. danny soulas reminds us it was such a sunny day 20 years ago. >> when people describe the sky on that day, on september 11th, everyone has their own version of what blue it was. north tower? >> yeah, my dad was in -- yeah, the first tower. 92nd floor. >> really? >> yeah, how about your dad? >> i want to say 101st. for some reason, i always have two numbers in my head, 101 and 103. but i don't know. i try not to focus on the little details like that. >> got tools, we can find other ways to use them.

>> reporter: they're guided by two artists who exhibit their paintings near the 9/11 memorial. they're known as boogie and rez. >> getting people out of their head and telling them that this is about what you want people to feel when they walk it. >> reporter: yeah, and people don't have to understand it literally to understand -- >> don't think. just put your feelings out there. >> reporter: on the mural, inside the equation, a kind of trick of the eye. >> so if you stand back and you take your hand, and you put it over the top of the top half -- >> oh, i love you. >> yeah, so that's really cool. >> reporter: the lyrics to dad's favorite song. ♪ hey, jude, don't be afraid ♪ >> reporter: angels wings. something for that high octane dad now watching over her.

and as they worked, these kids tell us they just hope this nation can honor all those lost on 9/11 with more simple kindness, community, and finding common ground. >> there's no, like, being together, no we're america. it's like there's two americas, what some people say. >> we all are waking up in the morning, putting on our clothes, and trying to make it through this world. we can make this place better. we can strive for the future. we just -- you know, together, unity, community. >> reporter: and inside that word community, unity and the hope of a nation. >> in the blink of an eye, our worlds can change. in the moments we share together, we find the strength to carry on. unity will show you that with hands held, we will see tomorrow. and now a personal note from us. for two decades we have been on

this journey with all of them. the babies, their mothers, and wonder at their grace and moments of joy and honored by their trust, so as we all mark this day tomorrow, our hearts are with them and the thousand of other families struck by loss work gratitude for the way these are a new our hope. >> through their pain and counselor tonight they've given the rest of us a gift, reminding us 20 years later the power of humanity, the power of coming together. we'll be back tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. as this nation remembers. i'm david muir. >> i'm diane sawyer. for all of us at abc news and "20/20," good night. ama: salesforce --

dan: