As we mark the twenty third anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks that shocked the world and adjusted the course of history, there are various stories of courage, faith and hope that bring light out of the darkness.
One extraordinary survival story features what many imagine to be an angel, and a dramatic conversion to Christ while holding on to life after being buried beneath the ruins of the North Tower.
Genelle Guzman-McMillan worked on the sixty fourth floor of the constructing. As she arrived at work that morning, she had no idea her life was about to be turned the wrong way up, as she details in her memoir, Angel within the Rubble: The Miraculous Rescue of 9/11’s Last Survivor [Howard Press].
When the constructing shook after the plane hit, colleagues were confused, and unsure about whether to go away. By the time they set off down the steps, it was too late to flee the constructing’s collapse.
“Brutal, diabolical, painful, vicious,” wrote Genelle in her memoir. “Those are a few of the words I’ve used to try to depict the hell of being hammered into the bottom by greater than ninety floors of a free-falling constructing. But no word will ever be sufficient.
“I knew death was inevitable—possibly in days, probably in hours, perhaps even in minutes. The time was uncertain, but there was little question I used to be in for a slow, painful, isolated demise.”
Genelle found herself pinned down by concrete, struggling to breathe, in intense pain. The expectation of approaching death led to some serious enthusiastic about her life and the realisation of some painful regrets.
First was her daughter, Kimberley, who she had left in Trinidad over a 12 months before as a way to pursue her dreams of being a dancer and singer within the “glitz and glamour” of New York. As she lay entombed at midnight, she began to understand the harm this decision had caused. She also became convicted about her party lifestyle and other actions she perceived to be selfish.
She began to hope to a God she had paid little attention to in her adult life despite a Christian upbringing. She told him how sorry she was for all of the bad things she had done. She promised that if she got out of this example, she would work to place things right in her life.
“I used to be very sincere about every word,” her memoir records. “I wasn’t attempting to idiot myself or Him. And I wasn’t attempting to bargain with Him. I truthfully felt the repentance in my heart.”
Genelle heard noises which gave some hope. But it was towards the top of her ordeal, as her despair peaked, that something extraordinary happened. A hand reached right down to hold hers, and a male voice said: “I’ve got you, Genelle. My name is Paul, and you are going to be okay. They’re going to get you out soon.”
It was only later, after trying and failing to seek out “Paul” to thank him for his help, that it struck her: how did he know her name? She now believes that it was an angel sent to assist her through the ultimate tortuous hours.
Her physical rescuers told her later that they didn’t see any “Paul”. Instead, they’d first found the body of a deceased fireman – which then led them to Genelle, who would grow to be the last person to be rescued alive from the wreckage. It took hours to free her from the concrete, and she or he was rushed straight to hospital, to the delight of her family and friends who had thought that she should be dead.
Recovery was a protracted process but her recent faith helped her to manage and she or he drew spiritual lessons from her experience. She was baptised, she married the person who had been her live-in boyfriend, her daughter got here to live together with her within the US, and she or he began to serve and worship at her recent church.
It may appear to be a miracle that anyone could possibly have survived the collapse of an unlimited constructing on top of them. Two others who survived, the law enforcement officials Will Jimeno and John McLoughlin, had their stories immortalised within the 2006 Oliver Stone film World Trade Center.
“How on earth did I survive being crushed by one of the crucial massive structures on the planet? How did I last so long as I did in those conditions?” Genelle asked in her memoir.
“It was all God. He had a plan for me—one I could neither explain nor take an oz of credit for. But I firmly imagine that the primary of countless steps in His plan for me was to attract me near to Him. I apologized, and He accepted. I promised, and He believed.
“It didn’t feel like only concrete and beams had been lifted off me, but a dark veil that had been shrouding me for years as well. It was an exquisite, magical feeling to know that the perfect story I used to be going to must tell from my tribulation to my family and friends was that, when it was over, I had made a recent best friend, one I could count on for anything and one I’d spend the remaining of my life serving with honour and glory.”
Heather Tomlinson is a contract author. You can find her work at https://heathertomlinson.substack.com/Â and on X @heathertomli
