A lot has happened in two decades, yet the memories and, yes, the pain is as fresh as yesterday for those who lost loved ones in The Station nightclub fire on Feb. 20, 2003.

With tears streaming down his cheeks, Jody King stood before the altar at St. Kevin Church Sunday morning. King lost his brother Tracy to the inferno that killed 100 and injured, many severely, another 200. Tracy was a bouncer at the nightclub where pyrotechnics set off by the band Great White ignited the soundproofing that was installed to deaden the sound.

“I wish Tracy was here with me,” King said clutching a wrinkled photograph of his brother that he carries in his wallet.

Bruce Cain also attended the remembrance mass that Gina Russo, president of the Station Fire Memorial Foundation, Sue Stenhouse who at the time of the fire was working in the office of Gov. Donald Carcieri and Father Robert Marciano planned.  Fearing inclement weather, the trio planned the St. Kevin mass and set Sunday, May 21 as a remembrance to be held in West Warwick at The Station Fire Memorial Park.

 Cain lost his fiancée, Tina Ayer, to the fire. They had planned a June wedding.

“There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think of her,” he said.

That feeling of loss was echoed by many attending the mass at St. Kevin and visiting the site of the memorial park the following morning. But there was so much to overcome that feeling of loss.

It was a reunion of many who during those dark days following the fire supported each other and the families of victims, first responders and the medical community.  For others like newly named Bishop Richard Henning of the Diocese of Providence, The Station fire is a tragic event with little or no personal connection.

“As you know this tragedy, nearly 20 years ago, was our state’s 911, and your family history, of your dad’s faithful and lifelong service as a NY city firefighter and his role as a volunteer fireman in the town that you called home on Long Island brings you into our firefighter family and we take comfort and solace in your prayerful presence this morning,” Father Marciano said addressing Bishop Henning in his homily.

Father Marciano spoke of the legendary Phoenix rising to life from the ashes, adding, “the bird is not legendary at all, I have met her in a fine lady named, Gina Russo, here with us this morning, and many others, survivors and founder behind the Station fire foundation and memorial, who out of the ashes rose again to life in his fullness. The goodness that came out of this tragedy far outweighs the pain that we endured. Thank you Gina, and so many others, including the survivors and families of those whom we lost and our brave first responders, for giving us HOPE and a glimpse of God’s love for us, through your love for us.”

Bishop Henning talked of the healing power of community solidarity and compassion and how that can turn tragedy to inspiration bringing people together in love.  

 The following morning, the sun’s unseasonably warm rays bathed the landscaped stonework and brick paths of the memorial park. Visitors stood silently reading the inscriptions on bricks lining walkways or the names etched on stones for each of the “angels.”  Despite the constant arrival and departure of visitors paying their respects, an introspective silence was broken only by an occasional word of condolence or comfort. Visitors found comfort in each other and, for those who needed it.

 Susan Parker of Paws From The Heart introduced her new therapy dog, Ranger, who took to his first day on the job giving out licks and wagging his tail.

 Gina Russo, president of the Station Fire Memorial Foundation, said people had been arriving to pay their respects and walk the park since she first arrived that morning just after 6 a.m.

 Seated beside her mother’s memorial stone Sarah Jane Ballard said, “I was only 18 at the time. Both of my parents went, but only my dad made it out. From what he’s said he jumped out the window and lay in the snow before walking over to the Cowesett Inn to get water. They helicoptered him to UMass and had him in a medically induced coma for weeks. I remember when he finally woke up he didn’t even know my mom hadn’t made it out.”

Ballard’s mother, Sarah Jane Telgarsky, lost her life in the fire.

Ballard, who lives in Connecticut, visits the memorial park at least once a year. On Tuesday she brought along her daughter.

Ballard explained how she hadn’t even known that her parents had gone to the club that evening. She didn’t find out what had happened until the next day. She received a call from her aunt asking if she’d heard of the club that burned down and reminding Sarah to always know where the exits were. Both Sarah and her aunt were still unaware of just how impacted their lives were by the fire.

 “It was just a few hours later after that call that we found out we had to go file a missing persons report,” Sarah said, the pain still present even after 20 years. “It was crazy. I was 18 years old and I’m racing up to West Warwick to find out that my mom died.”

Despite 20 years having passed since the fire, it is clear that the lives lost that night have not been forgotten, even by those whose lives were touched only briefly.

Scott Lester has visited the memorial every year to pay his respects and give his condolences. “We only shared one Spanish class together,” Lester recounted. “I still come down every year. It could have been any one of us. Though I was sad this year to see, usually someone takes the time to clean up the water stains and some other touches. Still, it really is peaceful and beautiful though. Everything is just perfect and quiet.”

Even in an ocean of memory, loss and pain inspiration can still be found. Bill Franzen has spent the last five years working on a book about the Station fire. Franzen has made it his mission to connect as many pieces of the story as possible and to create a comprehensive picture of the calamity that shocked Rhode Island that night 20 years ago. “After a while you start to match up the clues,” Franzen explained. “You’ll have a person say ‘Oh I have no idea who rescued me just that he had a blue shirt on. He hugged me and said I have to go rescue others…’ and then after a while details come together and you start to match up these pieces with the process of elimination and next thing you notice it comes together.”

 It is easy to forget after 20 years just how life changing an event the fire at The Station was, yet here, in this small but beautiful park those lives are being remembered with care, respect and a sense of dignity.