Pamela Hayes still remembers, 24 years later, how blue the sky was when her brother boarded a plane at Logan Airport for the last time.
On Thursday morning, the bracingly clear sky reminded her of that terrible day.
“What I find the most eerie is a day like today when the sky is clear,” said Hayes, 58.
Hayes joined dozens of family members and government officials outside the Massachusetts State House to commemorate the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people, including her brother, Joseph Hayes, who was on the plane that hit the North Tower in New York City.
“There’s still a hole,” said Hayes, 58, who lives in New Hampshire. “It doesn’t matter that it’s been 24 years.”
Relatives of those killed joined government officials in a ceremony on the front steps of the building, where the names of more than 200 victims with connections to Massachusetts were read aloud.
The two flights that hit the World Trade Center departed from Boston’s Logan International Airport.
Teresa Mathai, a member of the Massachusetts 9/11 Fund, opened the ceremony. Her husband, Joseph Mathai, died during the attacks.
“As we listen to their names, we honor their memory and our national commitment to never forget,” she said. “Behind each name is a unique person that was taken far too soon, and there are families and friends forever changed because of their loss”
The names were read by Governor Maura Healey, Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, Mayor Michelle Wu, Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, and loved ones of those who died.
Hayes said there were many moments on Sept. 11 that later felt as if some phenomenon was trying to stop her brother from getting on the plane.
“He was flying to California to meet somebody that he said didn’t necessarily want to meet with him,” she said. “Couldn’t find stuff to go with his laptop. His son woke up, who [usually] never woke up, to say goodbye to him. Just the tumble of events to try and slow him down.”
Hayes has attended previous 9/11 Memorial Fund ceremonies to honor her brother’s memory. On Thursday, she read her brother’s name.
“He was just a gentle soul,” she said. “Trustworthy. People respected him.”
After the names were read, attendees entered the House Chamber inside the State House, where officials presented an award for civilian bravery named for Madeline Amy Sweeney. A flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11 who was originally from Acton, Sweeney relayed crucial information about the hijackers to her colleagues on the ground.
The award was presented to Jason Papa and Jesse Winocour, two public works employees in Everett who rushed into a burning building before firefighters arrived and helped residents escape.
“On September 11, 2001, ordinary people also did extraordinary things and acts of selfless courage and love for their fellow humans. And in this community, all humans continue to do extraordinary things,” Driscoll said to Papa and Winocour. “You showed that the spirit of unity in humanity is alive and well in Massachusetts.”
Barbara Bowen, 61, recalled Sweeney as a close friend.
“She and I flew together all the time,” Bowen said. “She loved her children. She just had a really beautiful spark. She was so full of life.”
Sweeney’s daughter, Anna Sweeney Rossman, said she recently welcomed a daughter of her own, which awakened her feelings of loss and grief for her mother.
“I find myself returned to her memory, holding on to the pieces of her I know I still have, and imagining the truly incredible grandmother that I know she would have been,” Rossman said.
Bob Sweeney, a retired Boston Bruins player and Amy Sweeney’s brother-in-law, said calling his brother the day of the attacks was “the toughest phone call I ever had to make.” Now the director of the Bruins Foundation, he delivered the keynote address on Thursday.
“We should be proud of what people in this room have done to honor their loved ones,“ he said. ”We will never forget it.”
The ceremony, held by the 9/11 Fund, included a video tribute, musical performances by Apollo Club of Boston, and for the first time, roundtable discussions with high school students. Along with Sweeney, the discussions included former Boston mayor Marty Walsh (now director of the NHL Players’ Association) and Patrick Bavis, whose brother, Mark, perished in the attack.
Educating young people about Sept. 11 is critical to learn about “the impact of one of the most transformative days in our nation’s history and its links to Massachusetts,” the group said in a statement.
“The fact is that high school students today — and even some teachers — were not alive on that fateful day in 2001,“ the organization said.
At 1 p.m., a wreath-laying ceremony was held at the Garden of Remembrance in the Public Garden. Mayor Wu presided over the ceremony and placed the wreath on the memorial with Maureen Gilligan, who lost her brother, a New York firefighter, in the attacks.
“In Boston, we want every single person who lost a loved one in those attacks to know, you do not carry that weight alone,” Wu said. “In Boston, you have the entire community to lean on, to turn to and remember the incredible lives they led.”
After the ceremony, family members, friends, and loved ones of those lost took white roses from a large vase and placed them on the memorial.
Katarina Schmeiszer can be reached at katarina.schmeiszer@globe.com. Follow her on X at @katschmeiszer. Camilo Fonseca can be reached at camilo.fonseca@globe.com. Follow him on X @fonseca_esq and on Instagram @camilo_fonseca.reports.