9/11 Memorial: A Family’s Sweet Way to Honor Their Grandfather

2237
The Hemschoot family visited the 9/11 Memorial in New York City to see Mark’s name on the sponsored cobblestone. Courtesy Hemschoot Family

By Eileen Moon

SHREWSBURY – Twenty-one years after 9/11, those whose lives were altered forever that day live in the bittersweet, passing on a legacy of love and heartbreak, pride and persistence to their children and their children’s children.

For Jeff Hemschoot and his wife Gretchen, the memory of Jeff’s father Mark, who died at the World Trade Center, is one their children honor and remember. A rubbing of Mark’s name, made from the engraved stone surrounding the fountains of the 9/11 Memorial in New York City, hangs in the children’s basement playroom.

And at the memorial is a cobblestone that bears their names – a cobblestone dedicated to Mark and paid for by donations the kids collected from their lemonade stand in 2021.

Denied the opportunity to know their grandfather, they honor his memory and strive to follow the example he set long before they were born. 

Mark Hemschoot was only 45 when he died in 2 World Trade Center Sept. 11. A senior vice president for AON Corporation, Mark graduated from Christian Brothers Academy – where he was a championship hurdler – in 1974. He went on to earn degrees in business management/personnel and labor relations, graduating magna cum laude from La Salle University in Philadelphia in 1978.

A parishioner of St. James Roman Catholic Church in Red Bank, Mark was an altar server as a boy. Years later, when Mark’s sons, Jeff and David, played basketball for Red Bank Catholic, he volunteered as a coach and served as a volunteer firefighter at Liberty Hose Company.

For a few years now, Mark’s grandchildren, Matthew, 9, Andrew, 7, Charlie, 4, and fledging entrepreneur Katherine, 1, have engaged in some summer fun by setting up a lemonade stand outside their family home in Shrewsbury.

But last year, with construction on their street cutting down on potential customers, the kids needed another venue for their lemony-sweet pursuit. With an OK from their parents, the kids set up their lemonade stand for a day at Ship Ahoy Beach Club in Sea Bright, with the understanding that any money raised would be donated to a charity of the kids’ choice. The boys chose the 9/11 Memorial as a way to honor the grandfather they never had a chance to know.

Along Cabana Row at Ship Ahoy, business was brisk from the start. 

Proceeds from the sale of the Hemschoot children’s lemonade stand were donated to the 9/11 Memorial. Their grandfather, Mark, died in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Courtesy Hemschoot Family

Even members who weren’t interested in lemonade stopped by to donate and share their own stories of 9/11. In Monmouth County, where 147 people died in the attacks that day, there were many memories to share and many stories to be told.

“They were touched by what the kids were doing,” Gretchen said of her fellow beach club members.

When the afternoon was over, the kids had collected $891.

They sent the money to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York City with a painstakingly penciled note telling the staff the donation was “for our Grandpa Mark.” Memorial staff contacted the family and suggested the money be used to sponsor a cobblestone in Mark’s name.

Cobblestones along pathways in the 16-acre memorial site can be sponsored by any individual or organization in return for a donation of from $100 to $2,500. The stones are located along the 8-acre plaza surrounding the memorial and on the pathway through the 9/11 Memorial Glade, which honors rescue and recovery workers and others who have been sickened or died from 9/11-related illnesses.

Last December, the Hemschoot family paid a visit to the memorial to see Mark’s name and visit the cobblestone that represents a legacy both bitter and sweet.

“It was just a really nice way to connect (Mark’s) memory with their efforts,” Gretchen said.

The article originally appeared in the September 8 – 14, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.