When mourners gathered in a Southern California church for Barbara Keating’s November 2001 memorial service, an urn was positioned at the altar.
The ashes inside weren’t these of the 72-year-old grandmother, The Desert Sun reported. Instead, they got here from the rubble of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, the place Keating died on September 11 – one among practically 3,000 people killed in the deadliest terrorist assault on American soil.
In the 24 years since, Keating’s youngest son mentioned he held little hope his mom – amongst the 1,100 victims whose remains had but to be recognized – can be present in the particles. But late this summer season, the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner contacted his household with information:
DNA evaluation had positively recognized the matriarch’s remains.
Barbara Kinsey grew up in Salem, New Jersey, close to the east financial institution of the Delaware River, the place Paul Keating mentioned his grandfather owned the city’s solely lodge and bar. “She basically grew up in a bar,” mentioned Paul, now 61, noting his mom and her youthful brother every had their very own rooms in the constructing.
It was in Salem that Keating met her childhood sweetheart and future husband, William Keating III, a rocket scientist, Paul mentioned. “Bill and Barb,” as they had been recognized, finally moved to Massachusetts, the place they raised their 5 kids.
They had been “perfect” dad and mom. Each youngster was inspired to pursue “anything we were good at,” Paul mentioned, leading to what he referred to as an “oddball collection” of gifted, brainy kids – musicians, scientists and a linguist amongst them. Paul was the “token athlete.”
“They always thought it was so humorous that I was an athlete,” mentioned the one-time collegiate shortstop and second baseman, laughing. “They thought that was so useless.”
The Keatings had been “old school Massachusetts Democrats,” their son mentioned – politically reasonable however robust. His mom, nonetheless, was “a bleeding heart,” deeply sympathetic to social causes – a throughline mirrored in her skilled life.
When Paul was rising up, Keating led the native chapter of a corporation devoted to serving to individuals with mental disabilities. She later served as government director of the native Big Brothers Big Sisters, a task she held till her retirement.
Meanwhile, Keating confronted her personal share of hardship. She survived two bouts with breast most cancers, and in 1983, misplaced her husband abruptly to a mind tumor, Paul mentioned. But she by no means complained, at all times believing there have been others worse off.
“Don’t blame your situation on anyone, and you overcome it,” he mentioned, channeling his mom’s worldview. “You do what you have to do. You continue on with your mission.”
In her later years, Keating was a snowbird, splitting her time between Massachusetts and Palm Springs, California. Although she continued to spend summers on the East Coast, she finally moved to Palm Springs. She had household in Southern California and, after her sickness, Keating felt higher respiration the desert air, Paul mentioned.
There, her life revolved round her church. A lifelong Catholic, Keating spent dozens of hours every week volunteering, her son mentioned. But she nonetheless discovered methods to get pleasure from retirement. After her demise, newspaper experiences famous she was remembered for her pool events and martinis, which a monsignor mentioned she loved with numerous olives.
She additionally took to driving a convertible: Her late husband had cherished convertibles, Paul mentioned. Once in the desert, she realized she was “almost overdue” for her personal, since she might drive it year-round.
“She would drive the convertible in the desert, garage it, and fly to New England,” Paul mentioned.
Keating was wrapping up one among her many East Coast journeys in the days earlier than 9/11, Paul mentioned. Every night time of the week prior, he mentioned, his two sons – then 6 and three – had fallen asleep on their grandmother as she learn to them at bedtime.
On that clear Tuesday morning, Paul and his mom each left his house early. She headed to Boston Logan International Airport to catch American Airlines Flight 11 to Los Angeles whereas he drove to Stamford, Connecticut, to satisfy a shopper.
When they heard a aircraft had struck the World Trade Center, Paul mentioned, he and his shoppers went to the rooftop and seemed out at the New York City skyline, the place they noticed a plume of smoke rising from the North Tower.
“I had no idea it was my mother’s plane,” he mentioned.
His reminiscence of the weeks that adopted is a blur, he mentioned. There had been two memorial companies – one every week later in Framingham, Massachusetts, and a second service in Palm Springs. Intense media consideration made Keating’s demise much more surreal, he mentioned.
“I don’t remember any of the interviews we did, or questions we were asked,” he mentioned. “I don’t remember any of it.”
Keating’s demise was particularly laborious on her grandsons, Paul mentioned, recalling their panicked cries – “Don’t leave, don’t leave” – every time he and his spouse left the home. “They slept together in the same room for probably a year.”
Paul does keep in mind touring Ground Zero quickly after the assault, as firefighters and building staff sifted by the particles, with some small fires nonetheless smoldering.
“They were just beside themselves,” he mentioned of the staff. “Some of them wanted to touch me – that’s how upset they were. And I got it. They felt personally offended.”
In his thoughts, it was that very same spirit – a mixture of outrage and grief – that has fueled the health worker’s quest to establish the 9/11 victims.
Even and not using a definitive identification of his mom’s remains, Paul mentioned there have been discoveries that gave him a way of closure: Several years after the assault, he mentioned, investigators discovered an ATM card that belonged to his mom.
Then, about three years in the past, the OCME reached out to the household once more, asking them to submit DNA to check towards a hairbrush they thought may be Keating’s. It was a optimistic match.
“That’s when it really hit home: These people have been doing this for that long, at that level of effort,” Paul mentioned.
But the latest identification of his mom’s precise remains has introduced issues “somewhat full circle” for the household, Paul mentioned. According to the health worker, the identification was confirmed by DNA exams of remains recovered in 2001.
“It does actually bring it to conclusion,” he mentioned, reflecting on the a whole lot of households nonetheless awaiting the identical sense of decision. “I hope the same for the families that haven’t heard so far.”
While his household didn’t want additional proof of his mom’s demise, he praised the health worker’s workplace for its dedication to the households of these killed on 9/11, expressing a way of deep appreciation that underscores how significant that work nonetheless is to victims’ households.
“It was personal to them, and they felt like they were on a mission for us.”
The medical examiner’s office publicly introduced Keating’s identification in August, together with these of 26-year-old Ryan Fitzgerald and a girl whose title was withheld at her household’s request.
Their identifications, the first since January 2024, had been made potential by advances in DNA science, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Jason Graham instructed NCS. Breakthroughs have allowed his workplace to “work with smaller amounts of DNA,” and to “obtain DNA from very degraded samples” that beforehand would have been unusable, he mentioned.
“This office made a very solemn promise to the families of the victims who were lost on September 11th, 2001,” he mentioned, “to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to identify their loved ones and return them to their families.”
“This is work that is ongoing, and it’s a commitment to that solemn promise we made to the families,” Graham mentioned.
Keating would have discovered it admirable.
“She always admired people who were dogged in their pursuit of whatever it is they did with their lives,” mentioned Paul. “She would be really, really impressed with this group that works on our behalf.”
Now, the Keating household is planning for his or her mom’s remains. Some, Paul mentioned, might be saved at the web site of the World Trade Center, the place the health worker maintains a repository for victims, accessible solely to employees. A close-by house, referred to as the Reflection Room, offers households a spot to go to.
The remainder of her remains might be laid to relaxation with her husband.
“My mom was just a superwoman who certainly should not have been murdered in that way,” Paul instructed NCS. “The City of New York, and the medical examiner’s office, the state of New York – we’ll always have a connection and a debt of gratitude for everything they’ve done every step of the way.”
“They have given us a form of closure … and we deeply, deeply appreciate it.”