The families of Bermuda's two September 11 victims said a final goodbye to their loved ones last night after the arduous nine-month clean-up of Ground Zero finally came to an emotional end.

The mother of Rhondelle Cherie Tankard, who died at the age of 31 while on secondment to the World Trade Center when the terror attacks took place, was present at the final ceremony in New York yesterday to mark the end of the recovery mission.

None of the remains found at the Manhattan site have yet been identified as belonging to Rhondelle, but a family member said last night that her mother Cheryl Burrows wished to attend the ceremony yesterday to gain some closure.

Music-loving Rhondelle, from Cedar Park, Devonshire, had only been working at the World Trade Center for a day after being sent there by her employer Aon (Bermuda) to gain greater experience in her field.

And the sister of the Island's second victim, Boyd Gatton, last night said she was feeling a great sense of sadness after watching parts of the ceremony on television yesterday.

Pauline O'Connor, from Warwick, said she and her family would feel some emptiness now the clean-up campaign had come to a close, but said they knew they had to focus on the future and not dwell on the past.

Ms O'Connor said last night that her heart went out to the thousands of volunteers, including Police officers and firemen, who had worked round the clock in search of bodies and remains at Ground Zero.

However, Boyd's body was never found.

“It has been an emotional day, but I have tried not to absorb myself in it,” said Ms O'Connor.

“If I consume too much, it will begin to consume me. That is the only way I can deal with it. I watched a bit of the ceremony on television, but then had to turn away. I think the ceremony and the end of the clean-up is closure for Ground Zero, but it's not personal closure for us. We will never know how Boyd died or the way in which he died, and, to be honest, I don't think we really want to know.

“It will be strange not seeing Ground Zero as we have come to recognise it, anymore. We knew Boyd was never coming home, but I think we got used to the Ground Zero clean-up and, for us, it became a way of life.”

Ms O'Connor said she felt particularly sad yesterday when, during the ceremony, volunteers at Ground Zero carried an empty stretcher through a guard of honour to a waiting ambulance.

The empty stretcher was used to symbolise the thousands of victims who were never found, like her 38-year-old brother.

Ms O'Connor said: “I am sure that every family member who lost someone will have wanted their loved one to have been on that stretcher. Most were not fortunate enough to find the body of their loved ones.

“From the very beginning, when I first went to give Boyd's DNA to people working on the recovery mission, they asked if I wanted to be notified if his body or any of his remains were found. I said ‘yes' if there was a body, but, if there was any remains, I did not want to know. It was hard enough knowing what had happened on that day, and knowing that he was gone, but we didn't want any more detail.

“That would have made it worse. We really don't want to know exactly how he died. We just like to remember him how he was.” Boyd moved to the US from Bermuda ten years ago and was working at Fiduciary Trust on the 97th floor of the second of the Twin Towers to be hit by suicide plane hijackers last September. After the terrorist attacks, his sister spent months at his apartment in New Jersey tying up his affairs, and his life, and revisited the Ground Zero site a number of times, including with family members for the Thanksgiving weekend. She said, with time, the pain got slightly easier, but said, it would never go away.

“Today, I really felt for the hundreds of volunteers who have worked every day since September 11 to clear the site and find remains” said Ms O'Connor.

“I think, like us, they will feel a great sense of emptiness now that it has come to an end. It must have been a mixture of emotions for them at the final ceremony. At least the family members could walk away from it. They couldn't. They all lost people they knew, and it could so easily have been themselves who died, but they kept on going.

“I'm proud of them. I would like to thank them.”

And Boyd's mother, Betty, who has never spoken publicly about her son's death, also took the opportunity to thank volunteers in New York, as well as people who have supported the family in Bermuda. She said: “I want to thank everyone who said prayers and sent cards to us, but I want to especially thank the firemen, Police, and volunteers who assisted looking for remains. We will never forget it.”

And last night, Ms O'Connor said she now hoped New York would continue on as it had done before the attacks.

She added: “The unification I have seen in the US is awesome and a lot of this has risen from the ashes. I want to see the US go on as normal. I think they should rebuild the towers at Ground Zero, maybe not replicas and not as tall, but they should rebuild. People should go on with their business. We can't allow these people to hold us hostage.

“And I would like to see a memorial at the site, too, maybe a wall with all the names of the victims on it, but nothing too morbid. I want to go back to Ground Zero in years to come and feel proud. I think we all do.”