COEUR d'ALENE - Three thousand miles from New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, the wounds from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were healing.

In Coeur d'Alene, people reflected, they prayed and they went about their day as usual.

But like a scar, the damage is forever there. And each person, from firefighters to churchgoers coped differently with the emotional void the tragedy left the country to endure.

For retired firefighter Jeff Welch, who lost six colleagues when the World Trade Center collapsed, he gardened Sunday morning.

It helps when he stays busy, he said, reflecting is hard. But it helps when people come together, as they did at the 10th anniversary ceremony at the Fallen Heroes Plaza at Cherry Hill Park. It helps when people mend at the same time.

"This is healing," said Welch, who lost his friend and training partner Andy Fredericks that day, as he left the ceremony. The two instructed firefighters together in seminars across the country. "It doesn't seem like it's been 10 years. I still think about it every day."

Even with a son training to be a firefighter, and knowing nothing will be the same as they were before the planes struck, he said each thought and prayer and reflection helps ease the hurt a little bit at a time.

"Time goes on, he said. "But I don't want to say it's ever going to get easier."

For Jane Brooks, she prayed for recovery.

For her, for her neighbors and for everyone across the country.

From a pew at St. Luke's Episcopal Church that kept its doors open the whole afternoon for people to pause and reflect, she read Bible passages and a litany of remembrance before the ceremony at Cherry Hill began.

She prayed for peace, for healing, for comfort, unity and hope. And it helped her.

"That's what we all should be doing, hoping and praying and reflecting that this shouldn't ever happen again," she said. "I feel like this is such an important day."

Hundreds attended the anniversary ceremony Sunday afternoon. It began with the raising of the flag, and a prayer, and ended with jets flying by. In between bricks with the names of Idaho's recently fallen war soldiers, Tyler J. Patton, Nicholas W. Newby and Nathan R. Beyers, were dedicated at the local monument.

Coeur d'Alene Police Chief Wayne Longo, Fire Chief Kenny Gabriel, Mayor Sandy Bloem and Gen. Bill Shawvers, head of the Idaho Department of Homeland Security led the memorial with reminders not to forget the attacks, but to "find the strength to heal our souls."

Gabriel also knew Fredericks.

"I think it's getting stronger," said Jeannie Edinger, of the country's resolve to overcome the attacks, after the ceremony. "We're all more appreciative of what we have."

But things have changed, and changed for good, Travel, emergency response departments, tensions and the national psyche have been forever altered, some said.

Janee Newby, following the ceremony, said she still can't make sense of it all.

She doesn't know whether she would be able to forgive the assailants had her family members been killed that day.

"I would hope as a Christian I would be able to," she said. "But I can't honestly say I could have handled it."

Ten years have passed. And with the ceremonies and reflection, life, as hard as it can be to imagine, goes on.

For Janine, who didn't want to give her last name; she went to work as usual.

Watering plants outside the downtown business 'Mix It Up' first thing in the morning, she reflected on the nation's scars before heading out the door, reflected on the "loss of trust" nearly everyone has felt since.

"It's a sad day, and a sad day for us as a nation, but it's also a day for everyone to come together," she said. "We'll get through it."

Three thousand miles is really next door.