Newsday

The memorial service, hosted by the World Trade Center Family Center of Rockville Centre, was short and quiet. Some dropped flowers into the water, and others gazed at the sparkling skyline of lower Manhattan.

The FDNY's Marine 1 left Pier 53 in Chelsea at about 7 p.m., carrying relatives toward the riverbank just west of Ground Zero, where it stopped for a brief memorial service. The fireboat continued to the Statue of Liberty, where it turned and retraced its path.

As it passed Ground Zero shortly after the service, twin beams of light shot from the trade center site into the sky.

"The World Trade Center was all the way up there?" said Conor Cahill, 9, of Old Westbury.

The World Trade Center Family Center - part of the Behavioral Health Department of South Nassau Communities Hospital - was established shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, and has provided counseling to more than 2,000 relatives of Sept. 11 victims, including 750 children. Through its Home Ground program, it also has served 3,300 first responders and their families.

Tonight, it will hold a second service on Marine 1, this one specifically for children who lost parents or siblings.

"I think what's special is that you're removed from the elements, from the hustle and bustle of Manhattan," said Dr. Thomas Demaria, founder and director of the center. "You have a larger scope of view."

For many families, he said, standing at Ground Zero is too overwhelming, too public, too emotional. But on Marine 1, surrounded by the calming water, families can grieve and heal in peace and quiet, he said.

"Part of the power of this is not just seeing it, but being together," said Dr. Claude Chemtob, a psychiatrist and pediatrician at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan who has counseled many relatives of Sept. 11 victims. "I think it's a different perspective, an almost magical perspective."

Firefighter Paul Ruckdeschel, 42, of Oakdale, a Marine 1 crew member who knew many firefighters who died on 9/11, said seeing Ground Zero from the water is easier than walking down Church Street.

"It's hard even for me to be here and to feel this all over again," he said. "But you would do 10 times more for these people if you could."

A full moon hung over Manhattan. Passengers pointed to the condos that have risen in the past five years, at the new skyscraper at 7 World Trade Center, at the old Deutsche Bank building, which appeared from the water to have been strung with Christmas lights.

During the ceremony, Marie Miller, a family outreach coordinator for the center, glanced around at the group.

"I really wish I'd met your dad and your mom and your brother," she said. "I think if they're watching down, they'd be really proud of the journey we've taken."

Denise Tracey, 44, of Floral Park, said the fifth anniversary will mark a day she lost both a brother - Al Niedermeyer, 40, a Port Authority police officer - and a piece of family history.

When she and her brother were children, their father often took them to the World Trade Center. Before Niedermeyer became a police officer, he worked as a guide on the observation deck, high on the 107th floor of the south tower.