The last 9/11 survivor to be pulled from the wreckage of the Twin Towers says her life was completely transformed during the 27 hours she spent alone and afraid buried beneath the rubble.
Genelle Guzman-McMillan, now 51, was working on the 64th floor of the World Trade Center's North Tower on the morning of September 11, 2001, when she felt the building shake.
Mistaking the fierce rumble for an earthquake, she raced over to a window to look down at the street below but glanced out to see a thick plume of smoke emanating from a higher floor and burning paper and other debris raining down from above.
Less than 20 minutes later the building shook again, but this time Genelle felt it physically sway under the strain of an unknown force.
Concerned, she decided to call her cousin to inform her something had happened at work although she wasn't yet quite sure what.
A plane had hit the Wolrd Trade Center, her cousin frantically told her through tears, and she needed to get out immediately.
Genelle and a group of around 15 colleagues then decided to attempt to escape the building via an emergency stairwell, counting the floors aloud together as they descended.
Holding the hand of her friend Rosa, Genelle got all the way down to the 13th floor when she stopped to take her shoes off, unable to bear walking in her heels any longer.
She was still bending down when all 110 stories of the North Tower collapsed around her at 10.28am.
In the flash of an eye, Genelle was separated from her colleagues and plunged into darkness.
Trapped in a concrete sarcophagus and pinned down unable to move or even scream, Genelle stared out in the surrounding blackness and readied herself for death.
"I was preparing myself to die because I just wanted to fall asleep and no longer feel any pain," Genelle told The U.S. Sun.
"I knew the building had just collapsed - all 110 stories - and with the magnitude of what had just happened, I didn't think anyone was going to find me under there before it was too late.
"But as I was preparing myself to die, I started thinking about my life, my mom, and my daughter, and I realized I wasn't ready to go.
"That is when I started praying to God, begging for a second chance.
"I told him I wanted to live, to see my daughter, I was begging and pleading, promising to change my ways and my lifestyle.
"Then someone grabbed me by the hand."
'A PLANE HAS HIT THE BUILDING'
Genelle moved to New York City from her native Trinidad and Tobago in 1999 in pursuit of the American Dream, hoping, she says, to seize the spotlight and make it as an actress or model.
A 30-year-old mom of one and self-described party girl by the time the late summer of 2001 rolled around, Genelle supplemented her lifestyle by working as an office temp for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in Tower 1 of the World Trade Center.
"The reason I came to the US is really to have a bright future, a glamorous life ... I just wanted to live that American dream," she said.
"Before 9/11 I was living a party life. It was fun. I loved to party, hang out, and go drinking in clubs and bars.
"I was just enjoying life, being young and innocent, and I was having a great time."
My life was changed under that rubble. It impacted my life in a very positive way and I wouldn't change it for the world.
Genelle Guzman-McMillan9/11 Survivor
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Genelle remembers being excited as she headed to work.
It was a beautiful, warm and clear sunny day, and she was only a few weeks away from jetting off to Miami with a group of her girlfriends.
She got into the office just after 8am, set up her computer, and had been chatting with her co-worker at her desk when American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into the north side of the building 29 floors above them at 8.46am.
Genelle and her friend stared at one another in silence as the building shook. Her friend eventually broke the deadlock to ask, "what the hell was that?"
Seeking to investigate the source of the unsettling rumble, Genelle walked over to her boss's office to look out of the window.
There she saw smoke and debris floating in the sky before her - but still she had no idea what was going on.
'YOU'VE GOT TO GET OUT'
Eventually, she decided to call her cousin back in Trinidad to alert her that something strange had happened at her work.
By chance, Genelle's cousin happened to be watching the news as she picked up the phone. Though she knew Genelle worked in Manhattan she had no idea she worked at the World Trade Center.
"I told her something had happened but I didn't know what it was, but I couldn't really get her attention, I could tell she was distracted by something on the television and she wasn't listening to what I was saying," remembered Genelle.
"I said I think I have to leave and she was on the other end repeating, 'oh my gosh' and 'oh my god' over and over.
"I kept asking her 'what's happened? What's happened?', and finally she told me a plane has hit the World Trade Center.
"I then told her I'm in the building, I work there, and she started to scream and cry, telling me to get out.
"So I said okay, I told them I loved them and promised I'd make it out and be okay.
"At the same time, someone came over to us to say a plane had hit the building and we needed to evacuate.
"That's when my heart really started racing and my life kind of flashed before my eyes.
"I just started thinking the worst; a plane had hit the building, how am I going to get out?"
