Spring was in the air on Tuesday.

It was the kind of day that reflected the bittersweet feeling Gina Russo felt on the 14th observance of the Station nightclub fire where 100 concertgoers lost their lives in the eighth deadliest nightclub and assembly fire in the nation’s history.

A survivor of the fire who lost her fiancé that night, Russo looks forward to the end of the long road to build a lasting memorial to the 100, which now is no longer a question of whether it will happen but when exactly it will occur.

As the news media and family and friends of those who lost their lives gathered at the site of the memorial, Russo asked that she “not be held to it,” but she hopes for a May dedication of the memorial park.

Russo also issued a plea for additional donations to the capital drive, saying that while the campaign achieved its $2 million goal in contributions and in-kind gifts, in order to meet higher than expected costs and build a maintenance fund to sustain the park, an additional $120,000 is needed.

“I never knew stone was so expensive,” she said.

Co-chair of the capital campaign with former Governor Donald Carcieri, who had been in office only a few short weeks before the disaster struck, Russo commended those who have rallied to make the memorial a reality. She noted that the first 500 bricks making up the entry to the park will be dedicated to the faith community and the 500 places of worship that conducted drives for the memorial.

The park offers musical connections. Each of the 100 granite markers bearing the names of the deceased and their pictures if they could be obtained are shaped like speakers. They are arranged around the perimeter of 10 circles that are reached from a walkway stretching from a gate to an elevated pavilion like the neck of a guitar.

Monday’s observance was purposely low-key, as the park dedication will occur this spring. Nonetheless, there was solemnity.

“Time has moved on,” Father Robert Marciano said in an opening prayer. “Days and years have gone by, but our hearts are heavy still, for we miss them in our lives.”

Father Marciano, pastor of St. Kevin Church and a police and fire chaplain, was at the scene the night of the fire with the Rev. Bruce Greer.

“We remember, too, those who struggle with illness and pain from that fateful night, the injured, the families and the heroes of police and fire and medicine who did all they could to save those in peril,” he said.

The Rev. Donald Anderson, executive minister of the Rhode Island Council of Churches, who led the faith community drive, observed how the Station fire and the effort to never forget those who lost their lives has “brought all of Rhode Island together.”

Anderson called the park a “spiritual response” in that it provides a place where people can relate to God.

For Russo, who was in a coma for two months following the fire and carries the physical and mental scars of the event, getting to this point has taken a tremendous investment of time and energy. Pulling together disparate groups and even some who questioned the need for a memorial, not to mention uniting the larger community for the cause, has been exhausting.

Asked how she felt now that a lasting memorial is no longer simply an architect’s drawing, Russo used the word “bittersweet.” And she expanded.

“I’m proud of the work that so many have done. I’m ready to have my life back.”