News 12 at 11 o'clock / Friday, Sept. 9, 2011

AUGUSTA -- The keys to his car and a handful of pictures are some of the only mementos Joanna Kennelly has to remember her brother.

"When I saw the towers fall, my heart literally fell," she told News 12.

She was in Augusta at the time, but her brother, New York City firefighter Paul Tegtmeier, was there at ground zero to help save innocent lives during the event that changed the world forever.

She and her family waited day after day for a phone call from the Red Cross telling them Paul was okay.

"That was the hardest thing in my whole life was sitting there waiting to find out, you know, if he was alive or not," she said.

But the call she got struck her down.

"I'll never forget the call when my mom called me, and said that, you know, they hadn't found him and that they didn't believe that he was alive," Kennelly said.

Ten years later, Paul Tegtmeier's remains still haven't been found.

"My mom -- I think that kind of bothered her in ways that it does all of us, but then in another way, you know, when I talked to her, we just hoped that he went quickly and didn't suffer," she said.

With the anniversary of the attacks this Sunday, she hopes people will remember the sacrifices not just when it's convenient.

"It's all over the place: 'We will never forget, we will never forget.' There are people that will never forget. I will never forget, but yeah, I believe people do forget," she told News 12.

But through it all, tucked in the back of her mind, are happier thoughts.

"He was typical big brother. Always looking out for little sister. Oddly enough, he enjoyed cooking. He enjoyed doing things with kids," Kennelly said.

But even those thoughts bring her back to the pain that she continues to battle 10 years later.

"My birthday is on Christmas Day, and he would always call on the day before on Christmas Eve, and, you know, let me know that I wasn't forgotten. You know, and I miss that. That's one thing that I miss every year," she said.

Kennelly has yet to visit Ground Zero. She knows she will in the future, but she hasn't gathered the strength to yet.

There are more than a thousand people who died that day whose remains have yet to have been found or identified.