Patients of Dr. Joel P. Ways in Sharon may have noticed the patriotic display in the front window, complete with photos of Ground Zero from last September.

The photos belong to optician and paramedic Sally Sherry, who spent three days in lower Manhattan after the terrorist attacks.

Gordana Lettieri, another employee in Ways' office, put the window display together and asked Ms. Sherry to include her photos.

On the morning of last Sept. 11, Ms. Sherry received a phone call while working in Ways' office. It was her supervisor at Rural Metro Ambulance, where she worked part time as a paramedic.

"He told me to go home and pack my bags," she said. "At that time, we didn't know when we would be leaving."

Ambulances from Rural Metro's Shenango Valley, Mahoning Valley and Youngstown divisions left for New York City at 11 that night, stopping in Scranton to meet with another division.

In all, 22 Rural Metro ambulances arrived at Ground Zero the morning of Sept. 12.

The paramedics, including Greenville Fire Lt. Ed Cooper of Greenville, were sent into Ground Zero in groups of six to aid and transport victims, take care of injured rescue workers and help rescue survivors. Each group was paired with a New York City firefighter. Ms. Sherry said she keeps in touch with the New York firefighter from her group.

Ms. Sherry described arriving at Ground Zero as "surreal."

"I probably have 300 to 400 pictures I took. ... I still sit and look at them and I can't believe what happened," she said.

She went back to New York City in March for a vision convention and couldn't believe the change.

"Compared to what it looks like today and what it looked like on Sept. 11 ... It's amazing how things had changed from September to March," she said.

Right after Sept. 11, she said, it was easy to cross Broadway because there was no traffic.

"The town was dead," she said.

But in March, everything was back to normal.

"It was nice to see that," she said.

An observation deck had been built where Ms. Sherry's triage was stationed right after the attacks.

"It was probably a very healing thing," she said of her March trip. "I needed to see things moving on."

On the anniversary of the attacks, Ms. Sherry said she has a lot of mixed emotions. The group of paramedics she went to New York with still keep in touch, and they plan to attending church services today.

"There's part of me that's looking forward to Sept. 11, just to see that we've regrown and rebuilt ..." she said. "But I'm still very emotional."