A few days I wrote that one of the inspirations for SMITH came from the New York Times’ Portraits of Grief series, those compact life stories of unknown people who died in the attacks that told the biggest story of our day in perhaps the simplest possible way: one person’s life story at a time.

Today the Times revisits the Portraits by going back and talking to the families of the victims. The paper introduces the section as such:

For a year after Sept. 11, reporters for The Times offered capsule portraits of 2,400 victims. Their families have now had five years to reflect, to mourn, to recover. Interviews with a sampling of them found that, while they were at markedly different stages in the healing process, many have found constructive ways of embracing life without forgetting. Widows and widowers have remarried. Children have gone on to college or begun first grade. Some people have settled into new homes, new geography. And a few, while still struggling with their loss, have arrived at surprising places that they could never have foreseen.

Personally, I find the Portraits best read via paper and ink, but should that medium not be available to you, they’re here.