Some clutch photos — two decades old at least. Others have faces printed on t-shirts. All line up patiently, filing into the World Trade Center memorial to pay tribute to loved ones killed during the terror attacks.

Some, like Yvette Thomas-Huang, come every year. Her sister, Bridget Ann Esposito, worked for American Express on the 94th floor of the north tower.

“She was the best sister ever, the best person. She was wonderful,” Thomas-Huang said.

“I wish she could have seen her nieces grow up. I wish I could grow old with her,” she added.

They come to celebrate how they lived and remember how they died.

“They call him the elevator man,” said MaryKate Naples, whose father, Chuck Costello, died on September 11. “He was working 20 blocks away. He ran here. He ran into the first building. He was actually recovered in the second tower. That’s how we know he got into both.”

Naples said it was important to visit the site today in memory of her dad.

“I haven’t been here in 10 years for the memorial. But I have kids. This is my stepdaughter. I have a baby at home. It’s really important they know who their grandfather was and what he did,” Naples said.

Others, like Diane Pryor-Holland, are mourning deaths that are more recent. Her husband, transit police officer Richard Holland, died from a 9/11-related cancer in 2012.

“The post-9/11 are dying really rapidly,” Pryor-Holland said. “The numbers are rising, and it’s really frightening. This is a sad occasion."

According to the Victims Compensation Fund — nearly 4000 people are believed to have died from 9/11 related illnesses. A staggering toll that now outnumbers the deaths on September 11th, 2001.