A 9/11 Witness Remembers

Marileen  Brown and her husband stopped in front of a huge photo that showed the World Trade Center Twin Towers before they were destroyed on 9/11.  They got close together and her husband took a selfie of the two of them.  For Brown, a Bronx native, the 25th anniversary of the attack was deeply personal.

Brown, a Port Authority employee, was outside the North Tower on her way to work on September 11, 2001. She said she looked up and saw the first plane fly into the building and remembers saying, “Oh shit this is happening again.”  She was  also there in 1993 when terrorists planted a bomb in the parking garage of the North Tower. The building caught fire, and the attack killed six people and more than a thousand were injured, according to the FBI.

September 11 she said was, “This normal beautiful day with innocent people going to work.” When the plane struck the building she thought, “It’s deja vu.”

The 9/11 attacks at the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania killed 2,997 people, according to the 9/11 Memorial Museum.  At the towers some of Brown’s friends and colleagues died. She said, “I lost 18 people.” She told a story about her friend Jenelle Guzman McMillan who was in the North Tower. “It was shocking, my friend Genelle was on the 64th floor and I had no way of reaching her.” After the building collapsed Jenelle was trapped underneath the rubble, but was the last person miraculously rescued from the debris 27 hours later.  The two became friends and according to Brown helped each other recover from the trauma. 

Brown  said, “I don’t want people to feel sad for me.” She focuses on survival and healing and thinks maybe her story can help others. “The important thing is to have a support system and try not to watch a lot of news but to also not fully avoid it.” Brown recommended that people who suffer trauma and tragedy have a “five to 10 year plan” to have a future to look forward to and not stress. She emphasized the importance of staying  positive while spending time with the people you love most. As Brown finished her story, she reached over with a hug. She asked smiling, “Why’d you come to me out of all people?