Angel in the Rubble

 

2023 T2T New York City 5K Run & Walk

Photo Credit:  Tunnel to Towers Foundation

Eight days from today, Gidg and I shall join upwards of 20,000 to 25,000 other runners and walkers in the 2023 Edition of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation New York City 5K Run and Walk.    There is no greater example of transforming a negative into a positive than the extraordinary efforts of the Siller Family and the Foundation they formed following the murder on September 11, 2001 of the youngest Siller sibling, Stephen a FDNY Firefighter with Squad 1, killed at the World Trade Center along with 342 of his FDNY brethren.   

In the spirit of the Siller Family, I want to put this space to good use between now and next Sunday and each day talk about someone who survived that terrible day.  

Genelle Guzman-McMillan was at work in the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.  She worked for the Port Authority of New York-New Jersey in its offices on the 64th Floor.   She and a number of her colleagues began evacuating after the North Tower was hit at 8:46 am.   She had made it as far down as the 13th floor when the North Tower collapsed at 10:28 am. 

She remained trapped under the rubble for twenty-seven hours.   Even when she was significantly less than certain she would ever emerge from it, she never gave up.  To the best of her recollection, after the initial shock wore off, she remained awake - buried alive - praying and hoping against hope she would be rescued.  She was the only one of the original group of fifteen souls who had fled their 64th floor office together who made it alive out of the North Tower.  

In the twenty-two years since the September 11 attacks, Genelle Guzman-McMillan has become an author and a sought-after motivational speaker.   To borrow a phrase from the late, great Tom Petty, oh the story she can tell.  How great is it that she is still here to tell it? 

-AK