BROWNSBURG, Ind. (WISH) – In the heart of Brownsburg, there is now a brand new memorial to remember those lost on September 11, 2001, after the terrorist attacks that shook the entire country.

In the center of it, there’s a broken piece of steel that was one of the beams in the World Trade Center.

18 years later, the Brownsburg Fire Department has turned a very somber day into a monumental occasion.

Jim Miller of the Brownsburg Fire Department talked to All In’s Randall Newsome about how they came up with the idea and how it took ten years to get to this point.

Some in attendance for the ceremony say the “artifact” took them back to that dark day.

“I was a junior in high school when this happened,” resident Emelie Barta said.

Carla Isaacs says she remembers the moments right after the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center.

“It hit and everybody was kind of like, ‘uh this is odd,’ but we didn’t really know what was going on, and then when the second plane hit it was like dead silence,” Isaacs said.

“Everything stopped and we knew something bad was happening,” Carla’s mother, Rosemary Isaacs-Anderson said.

Carla says she sees the memorial in Brownsburg and it brings back those memories.

“When you walk up and see something like that, it just brings it right back. It’s like it happened yesterday, almost,” Carla added.

“Families were changed forever,” Rosemary said.

For Barta, the impact of 9/11 hit even closer to home.

“I knew one of the flight attendants,” Barta said. “She was also my babysitter when I was a little kid. Alicia Titus, she was on United 175.”

With tears in her eyes, Barta can’t help but think that things could have been different.

“She had tried to change her flight. She had tried to change her work schedule to be with family,” Barta said. “Just days before 9/11, 2001 and it didn’t happen.”

As Barta wipes the tears, she doesn’t wipe away Alicia’s memory, and her town is making sure no one will ever forget. She praised the fire team for seeing the mission through and turning the memorial into a reality.

“Thank you for making this memorial possible because this is some place that I can bring my children,” Barta said.

It’s a place where everyone can come to mourn and to remember together. For Anthony Smith’s family, it’s also a celebration of new beginnings. His grandson Anthony III was born on the same day.

“Now with him being born, it brought a whole new meaning to 9/11 for us, you know, a little light in the darkness of a dark time in our country,” Anthony Smith II said.

Carla Isaacs wanted to send a message from Indiana to people all over the country that are still dealing with that tough loss 18 years ago.

“They might not physically feel our arms around them, but we hold them close and we love them and we just pray for them all the time,” she said.

To learn more about the Brownsburg 9/11 memorial click here.