“I didn’t see my mom until the next morning. Then she had to go to the hospital to get checked out to make sure there was nothing wrong with her and then she was released. She had to wait for the fire department to transfer her over to New Jersey. She returned home late because it was hard to get out of New York. “I went to bed upset, panicky, and there was nothing much that anyone around me could say because nobody really knew what was going on. To see her emotionally upset takes a toll on the child and that makes me scared and nervous now because my person who’s my hero is hurt. Nothing bothers her, she’s always the toughest cookie for you. Marcy was working on the 81st floor of the north tower when the planes struck. She was screaming and crying and she told me that she was OK. “At some point, my mom must have got to a payphone. I couldn’t help thinking the worst happened to my mom and I was so upset. “My grandmother, my mom’s mom, called and was screaming and crying: ‘Where’s your mom? Is your mom OK?’ Panicking and going crazy and I was like, err, no, and in that moment I just started crying. I remember going home and everything being top secret because none of my family members really wanted to say anything to me, to have me worried, because I was a child. “My aunt then came but, before she took me out of the classroom, she pulled my teacher into the hallway and must have told her my mom was in the building and she just started crying. I’m like, my mom wouldn’t leave me to be the last kid. Kids’ parents were coming in the building to pick them up, but for me it was weird because I knew my mom was a very active class parent and never missed anything. My teacher was teaching current events and I guess it popped up like breaking news, what was taking place in New York City, so they had to turn it off. Her daughter, Noelle Borders, now 28 herself, is an elementary school teacher and lives in Bayonne, New Jersey. She became known as “the dust lady” because of a single indelible photograph. Marcy Borders was a 28-year-old Bank of America employee when she fled from the north tower on 9/11.

September 11 photo montage