09/11/2018
My dear friend Angela Braxton was on the 83rd floor on September 11th of the World Trade 1 building. This is her story: "I grew up an inwardly angry young girl, due to so many issues in my family and never thought I was good enough for God to love me so I became a people pleaser. In 2000, I started to sense that there was a whole lot wrong inwardly and didn’t understand why but continued to be an overachiever. In 2001, two weeks before 9/11, I received an opportunity to work temp-to-perm at a company in 1 World Trade Center on the 80th Floor. I was at my desk when the first plane hit our building as the building swayed from one side to the other and the windows which went from the ceiling almost to the floor crashed in and debris started to fill into our office. Even though, it was nothing that I ever saw before but I wasn’t frightened. My co-workers, including my mangers, CEO, CFO and CIO went to the fire exit door but it was jammed so we walked up to the 83rd floor and was told by the Deputy Fire Warden on the floor that everything was under control and to go into the conference room. All of a sudden, the windows are crashing in and debris flying in and I happen to twist my ankle while making a quick turn to try to move quickly. Now, while trying to get off the floor, the ceilings were on fire and collapsing. As we are walking down the stairs to get to the lobby, there were 2 flights of stairs for each floor so I actually wound up walking down 166 flights of stairs. Being a cynical, New Yorker, we were calm and were complaining that someone with a Cessna plane must have crashed into the bldg. As I got to around the 30th Floor, which you can imagine took a long time, I started to feel as something was very wrong. Get to the 20th floor and I start to see fireman going up while we were going down. That’s a picture that I will never forget. Get to the lobby and now, I believe God was showing me mercy as to my not looking around and just thinking “keep moving and just get out of this building. We were told that we had to go out through the mall due to not sure why at the time, but had to go through the train system. Get to the mall, which is underneath the two towers and the other buildings, I realize there’s no one really in the mall and again, I’m thinking it’s something very wrong as it was always crowded there and it was very quiet and still well-lit. All of a sudden, I hear a horrific loud sound that sounded like “what a huge tornado would sound like” that was coming towards me and also felt incredible wind that had me literally being thrown around. Now it’s gets louder and remembering being thrown around and thought it was WW3 and thought, I’m going to die in the bldg. Then just as quickly as it started, all of sudden its dead silence and pitch black and I can hear myself screeching “please God: don’t let me die, just kept saying that. Can’t see anyone sense it’s pitch black and couldn’t even see my hand in front of me and then I just hear screaming from people who I can see but can hear. I didn’t remember how I got out but remember, a woman from the Associated Press scooting down next to the church snapped my picture and it was in the newspaper the next day. My hand was in my head because my head was wet and didn’t know why and that’s the picture that’s in all the historical books since it’s the only black and white picture and it was those of us who were the last ones to get out. All in all, in God’s mercy, I never knew that behind me was 2WTC collapsed but only saw debris, grey stuff, like what you would consider what hell may look like. Get across the street to the Chase Bank and call my sister; she’s frantic, as I guess she believes I know what’s going on as I’m really not looking around; we agree to meet next to “Pace College” which is maybe 4 blocks away. Once I get there, I start to hear that horrible tornado, sound, and also the ground was rumbling and now I can see what’s going on. Now I’m screaming again and running so fast that I kept falling very hard on my knees trying to get away as I thought the bldg. that is the building that I worked in is collapsing. Wound up being taken to Metropolitan Hospital because my knees were busted open and my head was bleeding badly. Wound up taking the train from the hospital due to the fact that no one could come into New York City, due to bridge and tunnel closings. From that day, I lost my job but was so thankful to be alive. But now, I’m agoraphobic and kinda in a state of depression, not in the way most see depression “God was dealing with my conscience” and I felt broken even though I didn’t know what it meant from a biblical standpoint. God had shown me in those 4 months, in the quietness of my sister’s home, that I was His enemy and literally was showing me my wickedness before Him, i.e., my lying, my not loving Him and putting Him first in my life, having anger in in my heart. If we lie, we break the 9th commandment “Thou shall not lie”, If we love anything more than Him, we have broken the 1st – 3 commandments “Thou shall not make any graven images or idols, You shall not bow down to them nor serve them” and I had anger in my heart which is murder in God’s eyes. I knew that day on 9/11 that if I would’ve died, I would have went to Hell. I repented and put my faith in Jesus Christ and begged Him to forgive me and I got baptized, and each day, my desire is to share the glorious Gospel of our Lord and to love Him more passionately and to diligently seek His will in everything." #9/11 #911 (photography credit: google)
