Amy King in a black and white photorgraph taken in the summer of 2001.

The black and white photographs, nearly lost to time, have become perfect little time capsules for the family of Amy King.

The photos were mostly taken by King — the 29-year-old Celoron native who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City — when she visited her sisters, Deborah King Lloyd and Kellie King, in the summer of 2001 in Illinois.

King was a bit of a photography buff, and during her visit that August she snapped several pictures on a roll of black and white film. They include some of King, a Southwestern Central High School graduate and flight attendant with United Airlines, with a wide grin on her face along with her and her nieces and nephew. Others were of King’s boyfriend, Michael Tarrou, who also died in the attacks, and a recent trip to Washington, D.C.

“Back in the day, when black and white film was still a thing, she took a lot of pictures of my kids,” Lloyd said in an interview Friday on the eve of the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

The camera and film were thought to have been with King, who was on United Airlines Flight 175 that crashed into the World Trade Center, and the family assumed those moments captured just weeks before her death were likely lost forever.

Several of the photographs, mostly taken by Amy King, found nearly a year after her death in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City. Submitted photos

But that roll of film, and the thought it might still be around, gnawed at Lloyd. She asked her sister to look for the camera while cleaning out King’s apartment in Stafford Springs, Conn., where she had been living. She also mentioned to her parents, Stewart and Sue, during their daily phone conversations that she had been looking for the film.

By August 2002, Lloyd took a shot in the dark.

“I decided to look up the phone number of a pharmacy in Stafford Springs, which would have been nearly a year later, if they happened to have these pictures,” Lloyd said. “I asked, ‘By any chance, do you happen to have pictures that were never picked up by an Amy King?’ They put me on hold and took a little bit of time. Way in the back they did find this envelope with this name on it. The person on the phone got (emotional). They went and spoke to their manager, and they were very, very kind. They made multiple copies and sent them to me.”

The crisp black and white photos provided the family tangible objects to preserve new memories of King. “It was like this little gift a year later, it was amazing,” said Lloyd, a recently retired teacher living in California.

“I just think, ‘Thank God I called.’ It could have been in the trash. To me, it was a little gift from her. The fact she had taken pictures of the kids, and with her and the kids and with herself and Michael is amazing.”

Lloyd said, while sometimes difficult especially near the anniversary of 9/11, she will continue to speak about her sister and those impacted by the attacks. It’s an honor to do so, she added.

“It’s everybody’s tragedy,” she said. “While it’s not easy talking about it, I feel like it’s my duty.”

But the loss of King remains ever present in her mind. “You just learn to move on, to live without that person,” she said. “It never becomes easier — you become more adaptive, but that hole is still there, and that never gets any easier.”

She added, “You just try to hang on to every single memory you can. You worry you’ll forget the sound of her voice or some little nuance like that. It’s weird sometimes, I see her in my own children, tiny things, traits, when they say things or laugh. With a passing of time you just learn to focus on the happy moments. But, on the anniversary, you’re reminded again.”