Each year since the attacks, Elizabeth Stringer Keefe has posted to her social media accounts a scanned image of six people at a wedding, hoping that someone would come forward to claim it, according to Mashable.
On Friday, she claimed that she had heard from one of the people in the picture, and all were alive and well.
"Attention wonderful world: ALL SIX PEOPLE ARE ALIVE AND WELL AND I HAVE JUST SPOKEN TO ONE OF THEM!!!!!!!!!!!" she tweeted.
Her efforts received a boost this year since she was featured on a Boston blog named Universal Hub, and her story quickly went viral. By Friday, the original tweet of the photo had generated more than 53,000 retweets on Twitter.
"It's a beautiful, joyful moment captured in time and it was such a contrast to what I saw at Ground Zero, which was still burning when I was there," Keefe told Mashable. "So, if it had a relationship to 9/11, I wanted to keep it safe until I could return it to its owner. There's so much beauty and happiness in the photo that I just felt committed to the task."
Keefe even got a boost from country music star Blake Shelton, who passed the photo along to his more than seven million followers.
At 3:02 p.m., Keefe got a frantic tweet from Fred Mahe, whose Twitter bio shows him from Manhattan, New York.
@ProfKeefe I KNOW THE PEOPLE IN THE PICTURE! I was at the wedding.
- Fred Mahe (@FredWMahe) September 12, 2014
Keefe soon learned he was the man in the far left of the picture, and proudly announced her search was finally over.
Dear Everyone: introducing the very much alive & well @FredWMahe!! #FARLEFT #weallknowyou #911photo #AMAZING #NYC Thank you to ALL
- E. Stringer Keefe (@ProfKeefe) September 13, 2014
Mahe was very thankful:
@ProfKeefe You did it Elizabeth. YOU are amazing. #9/12
- Fred Mahe (@FredWMahe) September 13, 2014
@ProfKeefe 9/11 we remember what we lost. 9/12 we remember what we have. 9/12/01, I saw the best of humanity. Elizabeth is 100% 9/12 #9/12
- Fred Mahe (@FredWMahe) September 13, 2014
Thanks @blakeshelton 4 retweeting the 9/11 people pic. We r all alive. The REAL STORY is @ProfKeefe, she is 100% 9/12 @MlynnrabbMonica #9/12
- Fred Mahe (@FredWMahe) September 13, 2014
Keefe, an assistant professor at Lesley University in Cambridge, told Boston Magazine a friend who was moving away to California had given her the photo in October 2001.