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You’ll be speechless after hearing these stories.
Nearly 3,000 individuals were killed on September 11, 2001, twenty-one years ago. These seven individuals may have been among the dead if not for a stroke of luck that kept them away from the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Manhattan on that terrible Tuesday morning. Read these horrifying and mind-blowing 9/11 survivor stories, as well as one woman’s powerful lessons from surviving the terrorist attacks, to understand how this day transformed her life truly.
Her Mother’s Decision Saved Her Life
Photo Credits – HOLLY WINTER
September 11, 2001, was supposed to be Holly Winter and her college classmates’ happy reunion day, but her mother’s intuition prevented it. “I was supposed to be in the Twin Towers on September 11 with my two best friends from college, who lived in Chicago and New York City,” recalls Winter, who was living in Denver then, to Reader’s Digest.
Winter and her other buddy planned a surprise breakfast picnic for September 11 in New York at the office of the NYC-based friend because he worked nonstop there. It was the only date we could both commit to. We were going to fly into the city the night before, then arrive at his office at 8:00 a.m. with his favorite brunch of champagne and caviar.
She says, “When I called my mother in upstate New York to tell her I was coming to town, she informed me she was coming to visit me instead. I pleaded with her to cancel her trip and emphasized that since she was retired, her schedule was more flexible. She objected, stating that she felt it was appropriate to pay a visit.
The journey with her pals was postponed by Winter. “My Chicago-based friend opted to travel alone. They called me at 8:00 a.m. after the surprise went off as planned, and we had a good time laughing and chatting. To avoid keeping them on the phone during the visit, I hung up. I misplaced them both.
A Little Vacation Saved Her Life
Except for the September 2001 media tour, Brenda Christensen, a resident of southern California at the time, never skipped her annual schedule of meetings with clients, editors, and reporters at the Twin Towers in Manhattan.
“I traveled to New York City for employment in the fall every year. My first appointment was always a breakfast meeting with a Wall Street Journal writer in the Twin Towers at 10 a.m, Christensen recalls.
The one year I did, however, choose to take a vacation was 2001. Christensen spent the night in a hotel in New Orleans for a break on her way to meet her sister-in-law in Jamaica that year instead of being in downtown Manhattan.
“I woke up in the French Quarter to the terrible news, unsure if any of my staff members and coworkers had died because they were close to the towers in Lower Manhattan. Fortunately, they weren’t. I believed I had missed a lightning strike.
He Was Jogging Late Than Usual
When James Stefurak, a CFA, left for work in the morning of 2001, he stopped at the Trade Center.
“My morning commute consisted of taking the subway from 14th Street and 7th Avenue into the Trade Center, taking those enormous escalators up to the ground floor, picking up a coffee and newspaper at one of the newsstands, and then walking outside through the big glass doors that a homeless man would hold open for commuters every morning in the hope of a tip,” recalls Stefurak. “After that, I’d take a short block to get to my workplace at the Trinity Building.”
I was trading stocks then, so I frequently had to be in the office before 9 a.m. for conversations with colleagues, he continues. I knew my calendar was running particularly slowly that morning of September 11.
Even on slow days, I would still get to work by 9 or 9:15 a.m., but that morning, for some reason, I took my time getting ready and ended up being 20 minutes late. I witnessed what was happening when I switched on the TV.
“I quickly walked up the stairs to my apartment’s rooftop deck, where I could see the Trade Centers, and I looked southward down 6th Avenue. I stayed there and eventually witnessed the two buildings fall, a scene I will never forget.
I might not have been as fortunate if I had taken the subway down at my usual time, around 8:30, as when the first jet hit, subway vehicles were halted and blocked inside the Tower. Today, I live in Florida with my wife and four lovely children, Stefurak explains.
A Heartbreak Saved Her Life
According to Crystal Brown-Tatum, CEO and president of Crystal Clear Communications, ending a relationship may have saved her life. In 2001, I was about to get married and move to New York City in June. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter had given me a job offer to work in Twin Tower Two.
Sadly, I made certain findings that led me to put off the wedding and the next move. I would have been working in World Trade Tower 2 on Tuesday of 9/11. Therefore I felt numb. Although going through a broken engagement was heartbreaking, it was an unexpected turn of events that might have saved my life.
Never Before Has He Been So Appreciative Of Car Trouble
George Keith was driving his brand-new BMW on September 10, 2001, when it abruptly changed into first gear and proceeded into Central Park.
He scheduled a meeting for seven the following morning at the dealership in the hopes of making it to an 8 a.m. meeting in midtown Manhattan. What followed, according to Keith, was an irritation he won’t ever complain about, according to Reader’s Digest.
I arrived at the BMW shop at seven, but the mechanics wouldn’t start until eight, so I had to wait an hour for a quick fix. I hurried down the freeway after leaving the store to go to my meeting, which was on the 73rd floor of Tower Two of the World Trade Center, he says.
When I switched on the radio to learn that a little jet had crashed into the first Tower, I was waiting in traffic on the freeway when I noticed smoke shooting out of the top. A plane was flying lower than I had ever seen when I turned to look back at the Hudson River behind me.
It crashed into the second Tower while I was unable to take my eyes off of it. I’d never seen anything like the fireball, which was enormous. Then, I became aware that it was a terrorist strike. I’m lucky my car broke down. A lot of people I know didn’t make it, he continues. It’s still an emotional issue.
She Was Saved By A Smoke Break
Greer Epstein, working for Morgan Stanley in the second Tower, recalled, “I arrived at 7:30 in the morning, checked my email, talked with a few staff members, then went to the cafeteria on the 43rd level for my morning coffee and bagel.
I got a call from a coworker at 8:40 asking if we could prepare for a meeting later on over a cigarette. I snatched up my cigarette case and went to the elevator,” Epstein recalls.
“As I arrived at the ground floor,” she says, “the elevator car jolted and bounced. I recall leaving and writing down the car number while thinking, “I am not taking that car again.” I turned around to face the rotating doors leading outside.
I could see through the plate glass windows that people were dodging, that flaming paper was falling from the sky, and that a man was huddled up next to a planter holding his briefcase. When I turned to face the rotating door, I saw it was packed with so many people that it was immovable.
I recall noticing a large hole in the first Tower’s side when I looked up. I overheard someone claim that a jet had hit the structure. We kept an eye out for people grabbing onto the outside windows quite high up in the building. They let go and fell in that direction after that. I was standing there observing when I noticed a plane heading directly into the second Tower from the south.
The second Tower’s horrific fall was witnessed by Epstein and her coworker, who fled to safety through a nearby doorway as the dust threatened to swallow them. Epstein states, “It seemed as though the world was ending.”
Just In Time, She Was Fired From Her Job
Before she was fired on Friday, September 7, 2001, Laura Sorokoff Gelman commuted through the Port Authority subway train, passing through the World Trade Center station. “Had I not been laid off four days earlier, I would have been there. I waited until after rush hour to go to the unemployment office close to the World Trade Center the morning I was supposed to, so I never boarded the train.
