We had a four-part series about the attack on the Pentagon scheduled to run from Sunday, Sept. 8 to Wednesday, Sept. 11. As I was thinking about the series and the rest of our 9/11 coverage on the weekend of 8/26,27 I realized that it would not be appropriate to run the fourth part of a four-part series on the first anniversary of one of the most tragic days in our history. It seemed to me we needed something special and different to honor and recognize the day and the dead. A normal paper would not do. But we had no plan. It had kind of slipped our minds.

When I came in on Monday, August 28 I immediately talked to one of our designers, Sam Hundley and we discussed some ideas. We talked about how the page should honor the victims of the attack, be respectful and dignified, and reflect the solemnness of the day. We talked about how everything that can be said will have already been said and that the reader was going to be inundated with images and noise. We wanted a page that would give readers a few moments of silence to reflect on the day.

We thought maybe we needed just a photo or two, or more, if we could find the right ones. We didn't think we needed many words, if any. Sam contacted a friend who put him in touch with Aurora photo agency, who had a photographer shooting black and white photos of items recovered from the WTC rubble. When we saw the photos we thought they were perfect symbols of the pain and loss of that day last year. Sam put the page together during the week.

I then explained to my editor Kay Tucker Addis why I thought we needed to run the page on 9/11 and push the four-part series back a day. She said OK, but she would decide when she saw the page.

Sam finished the page and I discussed it with news editor Paul Nelson. He made some suggestions and added the words "Reflect and Remember," our theme for our 9/11 coverage. Originally, the page said "9/11/01" with the caption. Sam and I showed it to our editor. She loved it. She asked to change one of the photos. We did. We published it.

Below are notes I included with the page when we showed it to Addis.

9/11 Front Page Notes

“Dignity, Honor, Respect”

• This is a holy day and we should reflect that.
• There will be a chorus of voices shouting at readers all day.
• They will be getting wall-to-wall coverage of 9/11.
• Everything there is to say will have been said or has already been said.
• We want to give readers a chance to step back, think, reflect and remember the victims of the attack.
• This is not a page that will make us "ga-ga." It is meant to be quiet, dignified and respectful like the day promises to be. It should not bring attention to itself, rather it should bring attention to the message it conveys. The understatement is what makes the page, and The Pilot, innovative and bold.

The photographs are symbols of the lives that were destroyed in the attack. They help the reader connect to the humanity and emotion of the day. The police officer's uniform is a symbol of bravery; the watch is a symbol of how our lives can change in an instant; the ring is a symbol of love and all that was lost in the attack; the baseball is a symbol of the personal and how our work place reflects our personality; the flag is a symbol of our country post-attack -- soiled, battered, but still there.

Every photo represents a person and, by extension, represents everybody who was harmed by the attack and who suffered pain. When you see this page, you should stop and think about the people who died and the people who suffered in the attack. It is quiet and reverential, not loud and attention-grabbing. The page connects on an emotional level. It might be the only time that day that readers will have time to stop, reflect and remember.

The quote at the top is from Eric Emery, a researcher who is helping uncover artifacts from the Monitor. It was in today's story. The WTC artifacts are much like the Monitor artifacts. They take us beyond the historical footnotes, the machinery and the whirl of activity and remind us of the people who made the story. They found a wedding ring in the Monitor excavation. You cannot think of that or of the wedding ring from the WTC and not be reminded of the loss, the pain and the suffering.