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Reactions to bin Laden's Death from Local 9/11 Victims' Families

While closure is at hand for many recovering from the death of family members on 9/11, the demise of the mastermind who orchestrated the attacks offers little satisfaction.

While some grieving the loss of loved ones choose to festively commemorate the news of Osama bin Laden’s death, other suburban Marylanders are still working on closure and remain unsure of what the future holds for the American war on terror.

In , the surviving relatives of Max J. Beilke, who died during the attack on the Pentagon, said they are "overjoyed" with the news and that bin Laden's death brought closure to a loss they've been coping with for 10 years. 

Sylvia Hess, Beilke’s daughter, describes hearing the presidential address on Sunday.

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“It was sort of numbing,” she said. “It was surreal that this actually happened. I stayed up all night and celebrated. It called for a drink.”

That was a scenario echoed by Washington, D.C. resident Charlene Ghee. Ghee lost her uncle, Reisterstown resident Cortez Ghee, on 9/11. He worked in budget analysis at the Pentagon.

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“I told my uncle ‘Rest in peace’ because they captured him,” she said. Ghee is celebrating with a backyard cookout.

Others, like Columbia native , are still processing what feels like the approach of the end of the war on terror.

“Nine-eleven is perhaps the most egregious incident of its kind to hit American soil,” said Wesley. “That puts you in a very special category, having gotten ‘The Call,'” Wesley said of hearing from his fiancée, Sarah Clark, when she boarded American Airlines Flight 77, just before hijackers turned the plane around and crashed it into the Pentagon on 9/11.

“There are some lessons in terms of how much the country has grown and our own security since 9/11. It says to the children that maybe we have control of this,” said Wesley. “If you noticed...[in] most of the demonstrations around the White House, there were a lot of young people. When this happened 10 years ago, many were preteens. It means a lot to them that the American security apparatus was able to get to bin Laden and the fact it was done not by a drone, but by American ingenuity. I think there’s something to be said for that.”

In other cases, it is the parents who watched the shift unfold.

When news broke of bin Laden's death, it was cathartic for , who lives near Towson.

"I just cried," she said. "I couldn't believe it...I thought this was so far on the back burner with so much going on that I couldn't believe that it would have happened."

Her son, Dan McNeal, a Towson native who worked in the World Trade Center, was one of the thousands killed in the 9/11 attacks. His mother still keeps a room clean for him in her Ruxton home, decorated with memorials and mementos from a life cut short.

The death of bin Laden provides mixed feelings, she said. It marks a milestone but doesn't change the fact that for Dan McNeal's family, their son, brother and uncle is gone.

"It brings me a sense of justice, but not a sense of closure," Kathryn McNeal said. "No one who has lost a son or daughter will ever have closure."

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