The view seen from the New Jersey Turnpike near Kearny, New Jersey, following the 9/11 attacks, where smoke can be seen billowing from the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York after airplanes crashed into both towers.

Thousands breathed toxic dust on 9/11—the health effects are still emerging

Story by Jasmine Laws
After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks 25 years ago, thousands are continuing to experience long-term health conditions that researchers believe could be tied to the environmental toxins they breathed in following the tragedy.

The health consequences of the massive toxic dust cloud that blanketed lower Manhattan continue to unfold and researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted in a review that many individuals exposed to the pollution have gone on to develop multiple conditions, including cancer, respiratory disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease, and mental disorders.

The review was published in the journal JAMA on September 10.They also said that a number of these health conditions can manifest years after exposure, “underscoring the importance of sustained clinical monitoring and research to address the evolving health needs of the 9/11 population.”

According to recently published data from the World Trade Center Health Program, more than 9,400 people have died from 9/11-related illnesses. During the 9/11 attacks, a total of 2,977 people were killed, including passengers on the plane, civilians and first responders.

This included 2,753 people in Manhattan, 184 people at the Pentagon and 40 passengers and crew members on United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.Data from the WTC Health Program also revealed that about 50,000 cancer diagnoses have been certified.

What the Study Found

The CDC team found that 25 years later, more than 154,000 responders and survivors enrolled in the WTC Health Program, which provides medical monitoring and treatment for 9/11-related health conditions at no out-of-pocket cost, as of June 2026.

Enrollment to the program had increased by a median of more than 6,500 members annually since 2012.

The researchers said that individuals directly exposed to the attacks have a greater prevalence of chronic conditions and poorer health-related quality of life compared with the general population.

They also experience increased disability, more complex clinical management, and higher health care utilization and cost.

What Was in the Toxic Dust?

According to earlier CDC research, the dust cloud that formed after the towers collapsed contained a mixture of toxins known to be harmful to humans, including asbestos, lead, pulverized cement, glass fibers, benzene and others.

The researchers said that the combustion of jet fuel and the collapse resulted in thousands of tons of particulate matter and volatile organic compounds polluting the air

Much of the material remained at the site to form Ground Zero, a six-story pile of smoking rubble that burned intermittently for more than three months.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified all forms of asbestos as carcinogenic to humans. Asbestos causes mesothelioma, which is a type of cancer that forms on the protective tissue that covers the lungs, and cancer of the lung, larynx and ovary.

Meanwhile, lead exposure can affect multiple body systems and was attributed to more than 3.5 million deaths globally in 2023, primarily due to cardiovascular effects, according to the World Health Organization.

Numerous studies have also linked particle matter exposure to a variety of health problems including lung and heart disease, asthma, respiratory issues and others, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, while prolonged exposure to volatile organic compounds in the air may lead to damage of various organs and potentially certain cancers.

Why Was This Dust So Harmful?

Dr. Jacqueline Moline, a professor at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, who was not involved in the study, told Newsweek that one of the issues with this combination of compounds is that the dust was “very alkaline,” which meant that it could “penetrate deep into the tissues” of the body.

“So people were breathing this in and it was causing immediate reactions – some people had problems with their sinuses, their nose, their throat, and their lungs as a result of the irritation from the dust,” she said.

That irritation led people to “develop sinus problems, having chronic irritation in their nose, having gastroesophageal reflux disease because of the mucus they were swallowing or because they’d breathed in the dust and it got into their esophagus and led to severe irritation.”

For others, she said they may have developed asthma or ended up with lung scarring and added that some people even needed to have lung transplants as a result of the damage to their body. Over time, cancers began showing up among those known to have been exposed to the dust, particularly blood cancers, Moline said.

She added that the health impacts differed between those exposed depending on their body’s own reaction, how much of the dust they breathed in, and what they breathed in.

What the Findings Suggest

The CDC researchers said the ongoing health effects seen among responders and survivors demonstrate why disaster response efforts should not end when immediate recovery is complete.

Instead, they suggest that long-term surveillance and coordinated care systems are essential for identifying emerging health problems and supporting affected populations over time.

Moline also said the long-term impact of the 9/11 attacks on public health has demonstrated that “medical surveillance is critical after large-scale incidents, to understand not only what the outcome of these disasters is, but to pick up signals to know what to look for and to be better able to respond going forward.”

City Launches Online Portal to Shed Light on Ground Zero Air Quality

New York City officials launched a searchable online database on Tuesday containing about 170,000 pages of records from various city agencies that include air quality reports, health records and other materials related to the aftermath of the attacks.

Citing a lack of transparency around the attacks and their long-term health and environmental consequences, city officials said the portal is intended to give the public greater access to records related to the city’s response. Officials said they will add additional documents to the portal on a rolling basis in the coming months and noted that Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s 2027 fiscal year budget includes $34 million to create and maintain the portal.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Mamdani said, “For too long, New Yorkers have had to fight for access to records that should have been available to them in the first place. This portal is part of our administration’s enduring commitment to honor those we lost, care for those living with lasting health consequences and give thousands of New Yorkers the answer they’ve been asking for.”

Comedian Jon Stewart, a longtime advocate for 9/11 first responders who were sickened by exposure to toxins at Ground Zero, joined Mamdani at the press conference on Tuesday, calling out officials over air quality concerns shortly after the 2001 attacks.

Democratic Representative Jerry Nadler, who represented his New York City district during the terrorist attacks, applauded the mayor’s move, saying, “The release of City Hall’s files related to the aftermath of 9/11 is a long-overdue reckoning.

My colleagues and I who represented Ground Zero and the surrounding communities immediately warned local and federal officials of the health risks posed by toxins in the air at the time.

Our warnings were not heeded, and now we and the public know that City Hall, led by former Mayor Giuliani, predicted that thousands of responders and community members would face devastating long-term health impacts from these toxins.”

What Is in the Database?

An array of air quality reports, contamination records and correspondence between city staff show health officials were still finding evidence of asbestos at least 10 months after the attacks.

Officials had previously assured New Yorkers that the air in and around Ground Zero was safe to breathe.

The database also includes the Harding Memo, an internal document that was sent to then-Deputy Mayor Robert Harding in 2001 that discussed the city’s potential liability for toxic-exposure claims shortly after 9/11, as well as records related to environmental testing, cleanup operations and the reopening of Lower Manhattan.

The portal also includes records released as part of a settlement ending two lawsuits filed by 9/11 Health Watch, bringing a years-long legal fight over access to the documents to a close.

Key takeaways

• Chronic Conditions: Thousands exposed to the toxic dust continue to develop cancer, respiratory diseases, GERD, and mental disorders, with some conditions appearing years later.
• Toxic Composition: Dust contained asbestos, lead, benzene, glass fibers, and other harmful compounds, causing deep tissue irritation and long-term organ damage.
• Ongoing Monitoring: The WTC Health Program tracks over 154,000 responders and survivors, highlighting the need for long-term medical surveillance and coordinated care.

Reference

Azofeifa, A et al. (2026) Twenty-Five Years After 9/11—Lessons From the World Trade Center Health Program. JAMA. doi: 10.1001/jama.2026.15259

Contact Newsweek editor for this story: Kara Dolman and Anthony Murray.  

Thousands breathed toxic dust on 9/11—the health effects are still emerging

Is There Still Debris From 9/11? What Remains Today – Search

is staten island the same as long island – Search

Is There Still Debris From 9/11?

• March 5, 2026

What Remains Today…

Yes, debris from 9/11 still exists in several forms more than two decades after the attacks. Some of it is physical material embedded in nearby buildings or preserved in repositories. Some take the form of 22,000 unidentified human remains stored by the New York City medical examiner. And some were deliberately repurposed into memorials and even a Navy warship. The story of what happened to the roughly 1.8 million tons of wreckage removed from Ground Zero is more complex than most people realize.

Where the Bulk of the Debris Went

The massive cleanup effort moved more than 1.8 million tons of debris from Ground Zero to the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island. Fresh Kills wasn’t just a dumping ground. Workers there sifted through the material as part of both the recovery effort and a criminal investigation, searching for human remains, personal belongings, and evidence. A dedicated section of the landfill, roughly 40 acres, holds this material permanently.

The cleanup at Ground Zero itself took about eight months, wrapping up in May 2002. During that time, fires in the six-story pile of rubble burned off and on for more than three months. WTC dust was continuously stirred up and agitated throughout the process, extending the period of toxic exposure for workers and nearby residents well beyond the day of the attacks.

Toxic Dust That Lingered for Months

The collapse of the Twin Towers produced an enormous cloud of toxic dust that blanketed lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn, entering offices, schools, and apartment buildings. The dust was 80 to 90 percent concrete, gypsum, and synthetic fibers, but it also contained asbestos (up to 3 percent of samples), lead, chromium, nickel, PCBs, and volatile organic compounds.Outdoor dust largely washed away after a major rainstorm on September 14, 2001, or was cleared by cleanup crews.

Indoor dust was a different story.

Buildings in the area were quarantined for weeks or months, and the toxic dust sat undisturbed on surfaces during that time. The dust was also highly alkaline, with outdoor samples measuring a pH of 9 to 11 and indoor samples exceeding pH 12, making it corrosive to skin, eyes, and airways.

Animal studies later showed that inhaled WTC dust particles were retained in the lungs at rates of 90 to 95 percent over a full year after exposure, helping explain why so many responders and residents developed chronic respiratory and other health problems.22,000

Remains Still Awaiting Identification

Of the 2,753 people who died at the World Trade Center, 1,653 have been positively identified as of August 2025. That leaves 1,100 victims whose identities have not yet been confirmed. The New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner maintains a repository of approximately 22,000 body parts recovered from the rubble, and researchers continue to apply newer DNA analysis techniques as the technology improves.

Three more victims were identified in August 2025 alone, a reminder that this process is still active. Each advance in DNA sequencing opens the possibility of matching previously untestable fragments. The remains are stored at the World Trade Center memorial site in a private, below-ground repository that is not accessible to the public.

Steel Repurposed Into Ships and MemorialsNot all the debris was discarded. Salvaged steel from the Twin Towers was distributed to all 50 states and several countries for use in memorials. The most notable repurposing went into the USS New York, a Navy amphibious transport dock.

About 7.5 tons of WTC steel was melted down at a foundry in Amite, Louisiana, and cast into the ship’s bow section in September 2003. That 7.5 tons represents less than one thousandth of the vessel’s total weight, but the symbolism was deliberate: the bow is the part of the ship that cuts through the water first.

Smaller pieces of steel were incorporated into fire stations, police memorials, and public monuments across the country. Some fragments remain on display at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in lower Manhattan.

A Surprise Buried Beneath the Site

During reconstruction at the World Trade Center site in 2010, archaeologists made an unexpected discovery that had nothing to do with 9/11. Buried deep beneath Manhattan’s historic landfill were the remains of an 18th-century wooden gunboat, likely built near Philadelphia in the early 1770s during the Revolutionary War era.

The vessel had once patrolled shallow waterways before being abandoned along the Hudson River and eventually buried as Manhattan’s shoreline expanded through landfill.Excavators recovered more than 600 pieces of timber and 2,000 artifacts from around the ship, including musket balls, buttons, and ceramic tankards.

The find is now preserved at the New York State Museum, a reminder that Ground Zero sits on layers of history stretching back centuries before the towers were ever built.

What Remains in the Surrounding AreaTrace amounts of WTC dust and micro-debris were found inside buildings throughout lower Manhattan during renovations and demolitions in the years after the attacks. The dust cloud from the collapse was dense enough to penetrate ventilation systems, settle inside wall cavities, and coat surfaces in buildings that weren’t cleaned until long after the event.

The EPA conducted extensive testing and cleanup of residential buildings in the area, but some contamination in commercial structures wasn’t addressed until those buildings underwent major renovation work years later.For the thousands of people who lived and worked in lower Manhattan on September 11, the question of whether debris from 9/11 still exists isn’t abstract.

The World Trade Center Health Program, run through the CDC, continues to monitor and treat responders and survivors for conditions linked to dust exposure, including chronic respiratory disease and certain cancers. The physical debris may be largely gone from the streets, but its health effects are still unfolding.

Cancer Clusters on Long Island: What’s Known

Long Island has had several areas flagged by the New York State Cancer Registry for statistically higher-than-expected cancer rates, but these findings do not prove environmental causes and require further investigation New York State Department of Health+2.

Documented Areas of Concern

• Northport–East Northport School District (Suffolk County) – A 20-year NYS Department of Health study found a 3% excess in total cancer cases (4,593 vs. 4,454 expected) and significant excesses in pancreatic cancer, malignant melanoma, uterine cancer, and prostate cancer abcnews.com.
  • The Northport Middle School area showed a 7% excess in total cases, with notable increases in melanoma and prostate cancer.
  • The East Northport Middle School area did not show a statistically significant difference.
  • The investigation began in 2019 after unusually high leukemia cases among Northport High School graduates abcnews.com.
• Centereach, Farmingville, and Selden – In 2018, NYS Public Health officials reported significantly elevated rates for four cancers:
  • Thyroid: +43%
  • Bladder: +50%
  • Lung: +56%
  • Leukemia: +64% TBR News Media
    These rates were well above state averages, but officials stressed that living in a highlighted area does not mean higher personal risk TBR News Media.

How “Cancer Clusters” Are Identified

The NYS Environmental Facilities and Cancer Mapping project uses the state cancer registry to compare actual cancer counts in small geographic areas to expected counts based on population New York State Department of Health.

• A “cluster” is defined as a greater-than-expected number of cases in a defined area and time period.
• The maps do not show causation — they do not indicate that environmental facilities cause cancer New York State Department of Health.
• Many suspected clusters turn out to be due to chance or other factors www.fertilehope.org.

Risk Factors and Context

NYS notes that at least 40% of cancers are linked to lifestyle factors (tobacco, diet, physical inactivity, alcohol) and other individual risks (age, family history, workplace exposures, infections) New York State Department of Health.
Environmental exposures may contribute, but no single factor has been proven to explain all cancers in these areas abcnews.com.

What This Means for Residents

• No immediate screening is required solely because of these findings abcnews.com.
• The state continues to investigate and share updates.
• Residents can access NYS cancer data maps and reports for their area New York State Department of Health+1.
• Reducing personal risk factors (quit smoking, healthy diet, regular exercise, screenings) remains the most effective way to lower cancer risk New York State Department of Health.

Key takeaway: Long Island has had statistically notable cancer excesses in certain communities, but these are not proven environmental clusters and require ongoing, rigorous investigation. For the most accurate, up-to-date information, consult the New York State Department of Health’s cancer data portal New York State Department of Health+1.  

Long Island school district found to have higher rates of cancer cases: Study – ABC News

Cancer cluster discovered in Centereach, Farmingville, Selden | TBR News Media 

Long Island cancer clusters where they dump 9/11 Debris – Search Videos

Are Cancer Rates Higher on Long Island? – Fertile Hope

long island cancer clusters – Search Videos

Staten Island Cancer Clusters — Key Findings and Context

Staten Island has been identified as one of four New York State study areas with unusually high cancer rates, with several cancer types occurring at significantly higher rates than in other NYC boroughs and in the rest of New York State New York State Department of Health.

Official Investigation and Data

The Governor Cuomo’s Cancer Research Initiative selected Staten Island in 2017 as one of four high‑risk areas, alongside Warren County, East Buffalo/West Cheektowaga, and Centereach/Farmingville/Selden New York State Department of Health+1. The study compared 2011–2015 age‑adjusted cancer incidence rates for Staten Island against other NYC boroughs and NYS excluding NYC.

Key findings for Staten Island (per 100,000 people) New York State Department of Health:

• All sites: 524.9 (17% higher than other NYC boroughs)
• Thyroid: 33.2 (67% higher than other NYC boroughs)
• Lung: 64.7 (35% higher)
• Colorectal: 43.3 (8% higher)
• Uterus: 35.4 (13% higher)
• Kidney: 18.9 (36% higher)
• Leukemia: 18.5 (36% higher)
• Non‑Hodgkin lymphoma: 24.1 (22% higher)

These rates were higher than the combined rates of the other four NYC boroughs and higher than NYS excluding NYC for multiple cancer types New York State Department of Health.

Possible Contributing Factors

The investigation examined demographic, behavioral, occupational, and environmental factors New York State Department of Health.

Environmental data sources under review include:

• Air quality and emissions from regulated facilities
• Pesticide use
• Radon levels in homes
• Hazardous waste/industrial sites
• Public drinking water quality New York State Department of Health

One public health narrative has linked proximity to the Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island to community concerns, as explored in PBS’s 2018 MetroFocus segment PBS. However, the official report did not confirm a direct causal link; it emphasized the need for further environmental and occupational data analysis New York State Department of Health.

Community and Policy Response

The initiative’s goals include:

• Identifying reasons for elevated rates
• Enhancing prevention and screening
• Improving access to quality cancer care New York State Department of Health+1

Local and state officials have held public meetings, and the data has been shared through webinars and reports New York State Department of Health.

Summary

Staten Island’s elevated cancer rates are documented and statistically significant for several cancer types, but no single environmental cause has been proven.

The state’s ongoing investigation is gathering and analyzing environmental, occupational, and demographic data to determine contributing factors and guide prevention efforts New York State Department of Health+1.

For the most current updates, the New York State Department of Health’s Cancer Research Initiative website and local news outlets (e.g., SILIVE) provide the latest reports and public meeting summaries.

Long Island and Staten Island are two completely different places, though their names can make them sound similar.

🌍 Key Differences

• Long Island
  • Location: Extends eastward from New York City into the Atlantic Ocean.
  • Size: Much larger — about 118 miles long.
  • Counties: Includes Brooklyn (Kings) and Queens (part of NYC), plus Nassau and Suffolk.
  • Identity: Known for beaches, suburbs, vineyards, and the Hamptons.
• Staten Island
  • Location: South of Manhattan, across New York Harbor.
  • Size: Much smaller — about 13 miles long.
  • County: Entirely one borough of NYC (Richmond County).
  • Identity: More suburban, with Staten Island Ferry views of the Statue of Liberty.

🚢 Quick Way to Remember

• Long Island = a huge island with multiple counties, stretching far east.
• Staten Island = one borough of NYC, smaller and closer to Manhattan.

They’re both part of New York State, but they’re not the same place at all.

Would you like me to create a side‑by‑side comparison map or a cultural differences breakdown?

Here’s a clear side‑by‑side comparison map view of Long Island and Staten Island, showing their geography, scale, and context within New York.

🗺️ Key Takeaways

• Scale: Long Island is enormous compared to Staten Island — nearly 25 times larger in area.
• Governance: Long Island spans multiple counties, while Staten Island is just one NYC borough.
• Lifestyle: Long Island mixes urban boroughs (Brooklyn, Queens) with suburban and rural areas, while Staten Island is primarily suburban.
• Access: Staten Island relies heavily on the Staten Island Ferry and bridges, whereas Long Island connects directly by road and rail.

Explain cultural differences between Long Island and Staten Island

Culturally, Long Island and Staten Islandfeel like two very different worlds, even though both are part of New York City.

🎭 Long Island

• Identity: A mix of urban (Brooklyn, Queens) and suburban/rural (Nassau, Suffolk).
• Culture: Strong Italian‑American, Jewish, and Irish communities; suburban family life; Hamptons luxury scene.
• Vibe: Fast‑paced near NYC, but relaxed and beachy further east.
• Accents & Attitudes: The “Long Island accent” is famous — think coffee as “caw‑fee.”
• Leisure: Beaches, vineyards, malls, and summer escapes.

🏡 Staten Island

• Identity: More suburban and insular, often described as “the forgotten borough.”
• Culture: Heavy Italian‑American presence, strong local pride, tight‑knit neighborhoods.
• Vibe: Quieter, family‑oriented, with a small‑town feel compared to other NYC boroughs.
• Accents & Attitudes: Staten Island accent overlaps with Brooklyn but has its own flavor.
• Leisure: Staten Island Ferry, parks, and local diners — less nightlife than other boroughs.

⚖️ Symbolic Difference

• Long Island = sprawling diversity, suburban affluence, and coastal leisure.
• Staten Island = close‑knit, suburban pride, and a sense of separateness from the rest of NYC.

Long Island is the largest island in the contiguous United States, stretching about 118 miles eastward from New York Harbor into the Atlantic Ocean. It is both a geographic region and a cultural identity, deeply tied to New York City yet distinct in its own right.

🌍 Geography

• Counties: Four total — Kings (Brooklyn), Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk.
• Size: About 1,401 square miles, with a population of over 8 million.
• Shape: Often described as fish‑like, with the North Fork and South Fork forming its “tail.”
• Borders: Long Island Sound to the north (separating it from Connecticut), Atlantic Ocean to the south.

🏖️ Culture & Lifestyle

• Urban vs. Suburban: Western Long Island (Brooklyn & Queens) is fully urban, while Nassau and Suffolk blend suburban sprawl, farmland, and coastal villages.
• Localism: Residents strongly identify with their towns and school districts, creating intense community pride.
• Leisure: Famous for beaches (Jones Beach, Fire Island, Montauk), vineyards, and the Hamptons.
• Accents & Identity: The “Long Island accent” is iconic, and many locals distinguish “up island” (closer to NYC) from the more rural East End.

📜 History

• Native Peoples: Originally inhabited by Delaware tribes in the west and Montauk peoples in the east.
• Colonial Era: Dutch settled the west, English the east; Southampton and Southold were among the first towns (1640).
• Revolutionary Role: Long Island saw key battles during the American Revolution.
• Growth: The Long Island Rail Road (1836) spurred suburban expansion and tourism. Later, aviation and aerospace industries flourished here.

✨ Symbolic Identity

Long Island embodies dualities:

• City vs. Suburb
• Luxury vs. Localism
• Beach leisure vs. commuter grind

It’s both a gateway to New York City and a retreat from it, making it one of the most culturally layered regions in the U.S.

Staten Island is the southernmost borough of New York City, often called “the forgotten borough” because it feels more suburban and distinct compared to Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.

🌍 Geography

• Size: About 58 square miles — much smaller than Long Island.
• Location: South of Manhattan, across New York Harbor, connected by bridges to Brooklyn and New Jersey.
• Landscape: Rolling hills, wetlands, and shoreline parks. Staten Island has more green space than any other NYC borough.

🏡 Culture & Lifestyle

• Identity: Strongly suburban, with single‑family homes, shopping centers, and car‑centric living.
• Community: Large Italian‑American population, alongside growing diversity.
• Local Pride: Residents often emphasize Staten Island’s distinctiveness from the rest of NYC.
• Leisure: Staten Island Ferry (free ride with skyline views), Staten Island Zoo, Staten Island Greenbelt, and beaches like South Beach.

📜 History

• Colonial Roots: Originally inhabited by Lenape peoples; later settled by Dutch and English.
• American Revolution: Used as a British base during the war.
• Modern Era: Incorporated into NYC in 1898, but has often had a complicated relationship with the city — even voting in the 1990s to secede (though it never happened).

✨ Symbolic Identity

Staten Island represents separateness and suburban retreat within the NYC framework. It’s the borough that feels most like a small town, yet it still belongs to the vast metropolis.

Here’s a cultural side‑by‑side comparison of Long Island and Staten Island — two places with very different vibes despite their similar names.

✨ Cultural Contrast

• Long Island: Known for its duality — urban boroughs (Brooklyn, Queens) vs. suburban/rural East End. Strong diversity, iconic accent, and leisure culture (beaches, vineyards, Hamptons).
• Staten Island: More suburban, quieter, with strong Italian‑American identity and local pride. Less nightlife, more green space, and a small‑town feel within NYC.

New FDNY report details 25 years of 9/11 health impacts

Hundreds of thousands of tons of toxic debris containing more than 2,500 contaminants and known carcinogens were spread across Lower Manhattan when the towers collapsed. Exposure to the toxins in the debris is alleged to have contributed to fatal or debilitating illnesses among people who were at Ground Zero. The Bush administration ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to issue reassuring statements regarding air quality in the aftermath of the attacks   ·  Wikipedia  

Twenty five years have passed since 2,977 victims lost their lives to the September 11 terrorist attacks. Part of this number, the New York fire and police departments count a total of 343 and 23 personnel, respectively, among the fallen that day.

Since then though, over 650 more have lost their lives to illnesses related to their participation in the rescue and recovery efforts on and in the aftermath of 9/11. Cancer and respiratory diseases have caused the most deaths over the past 22 years but research suggests that first responders also display higher rates of cardiovascular disease. Published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open in 2019, researchers found that the first firefighters on the scene were 44 percent more likely to develop cardiovascular disease than those who were first present a day later.

Speaking at a ceremony last week which added a further 43 names to the FDNY’s Memorial Wall, New York Fire Commissioner Laura Kavanagh said: “Each year, this memorial wall grows as we honor those who gave their lives in service of others. These brave men and women showed up that day, and in the days and months following the attacks to participate in the rescue and recovery efforts at the World Trade Center site.

We will never forget them.”

The World Trade Center Health Program says more than 9,000 people have died from illnesses related to the Sept. 11 attacks, a toll that now far exceeds the number of people killed on the day of the attacks. 

From mosques to data center protests: How the post-9/11 surveillance machine came for us all | Watch

Charlie Kirk statue vandalized days after unveiling

Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning) – CSC Talk Radio

Alan Jackson’s Final “Where Were You” Release Marked by Farewell Show

Alan Jackson has released a new live version of “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)” recorded at his historic June 27, 2026 farewell concert in Nashville — his last performance of the song and the final chapter of his career Country Rebel+1.  

Five years ago, the 67-year-old music giant Jackson shared that he has a degenerative nerve condition that affects his balance called Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, which he was first diagnosed with a decade prior.  Although not fatal, He said it was a genetic condition, and its effects on his ability to walk and perform had become more noticeable.

Complete Lineup Spans Country Music Royalty

The June 27 finale at Nissan Stadium will feature an unprecedented gathering of multi-platinum artists. Luke Bryan, Eric Church, and Luke Combs headline alongside Riley Green, Cody Johnson, Miranda Lambert, Jon Pardi, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, and Lee Ann Womack. The concert also includes family members Adam Wright, Big City Brian Wright, and Carlisle Wright, adding personal meaning to Jackson’s farewell.

Each artist shares a deep connection with Jackson’s catalog and legacy. Carrie Underwood has recorded multiple Jackson covers, Keith Urban represents Nashville’s instrumental mastery, and Eric Church embodies traditional country values Jackson championed. This assembly celebrates not just one man’s career, but an entire era of country music excellence.  

Alan Jackson has demonstrated remarkable generosity throughout this farewell tour. Every ticket sold contributes to CMT Research Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to funding research for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a neurological condition Jackson has battled for years. The generous sponsor matching every dollar raised demonstrates deep industry-wide support for Jackson’s cause.

Alan Jackson’s performance of “Where Were You” (When The World Stopped Turning) live from CMA Awards 2001.

A farewell performance with lasting meaning

The rendition was captured during Jackson’s Last Call: One More for the Road finale at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium, a star‑studded event that marked the end of his touring career after years of battling Charcot‑Marie‑Tooth disease Country Rebel.

The show featured nearly two hours of his classic hits, with guest appearances from George Strait and Miranda Lambert, and was attended by more than 50,000 fans www.krty.com.

One of the most moving moments was Jackson’s acoustic performance of “Where Were You,” which drew a standing ovation from 70,000 voices Country Rebel.

This was the first and final time he sang the 9/11 tribute song live musicianvoice.com+1.

Release timing and significance

The live recording was made public on September 11, 2026, the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks Country Rebel+1.

MCA partnered with Jackson to release the track, underscoring its enduring relevance nearly a quarter century after its original 2001 debut Holler.

Jackson himself has said he didn’t expect the song to remain so important, but it continues to resonate with both fans and those affected by the tragedy Holler.

Song background

Written in the weeks after 9/11, “Where Were You” became a No. 1 country hit, won multiple ACM and CMA awards, and earned Jackson his first Grammy for Best Country Song Country Rebel+1.

Since 2002, it has been a staple of his live shows and a symbolic tribute to the day the world “stopped turning” musicianvoice.com+1.

How to listen

The new live version is available on YouTube and major digital streaming platforms musicianvoice.com+1.

It is also part of the forthcoming live album Last Call: One More for the Road – The Finale (Live from Nashville) www.krty.com.

This release closes a chapter in Jackson’s career and offers one last chance for fans and the nation to hear the song as he intended — a personal, heartfelt reflection on a day that changed America forever.

Alan Jackson is revisiting one of his most enduring songs with a newly recorded live version of “Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning),” arriving Friday, Sept. 11, to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The new recording was captured during Jackson’s June 27 farewell concert at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium, where he performed for a sold-out crowd of more than 50,000 fans.

Jackson wrote the song in the weeks following the attacks, completing it after waking in the early morning hours with the melody and opening lines in his head. He debuted it at the 2001 Country Music Association Awards, where the performance quickly drew widespread attention. The song was subsequently released as a single and became a No. 1 country hit, while earning Jackson the Grammy Award for best country song along with honors from the CMA and Academy of Country Music.

The new performance carries additional significance because it comes from Jackson’s final full-length concert as a touring artist. His Nissan Stadium set included the song among a career-spanning collection of hits, with George Strait also joining him during the show for “Designated Drinker” and “Murder on Music Row.” The concert is being preserved for a forthcoming live album, “Last Call: One More for the Road – The Finale (Live from Nashville).”

Nearly 25 years after its original release, “Where Were You” remains closely associated with the national grief and reflection that followed the attacks. Jackson has continued to perform the song on occasions marking the tragedy, including a televised National Memorial Day Concert performance earlier this year. The newly recorded version offers another rendition of the song as the country observes the anniversary of a day that permanently changed the nation.

Stream ‘Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning) (Live)’ – HERE.

Editorial credit: Tony Norkus / Shutterstock.com

Alan Jackson’s speech at his final concert in Nashville: ‘It’s just overwhelming’

Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning) (Live) | YouTube Music

Alan Jackson – Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning) [Live]

ALAN JACKSON l LAST CALL l NASHVILLE 2026 l HIGHLIGHTS

NYPD Commissioner: “It Wasn’t Debris. It Was People.”

THE END | We Will Never Forget | 9/11 Tribute

25 Anniversary 911 PBS Special – Search Videos

25 Anniversary 911 – Search Videos

Kerry Irvine couldn’t bring herself to return to Lower Manhattan. Opening a studio over looking the 9/11 Memorial transformed her relationship with grief—and with painting. – Search  © Courtesy of Irvine

This Artist Utilized Her Kitchen For Inspiration During COVID-19 – Grit Daily News

Kerry Irvine Fine Art | New York City | Abstract Impressionist

Silver Lining – DOWNTOWN MAGAZINE

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Kerry Irvine tragically lost her sister in the 9/11 terror attacks.

25 years later, Kerry paints from her studio on the 80th floor of 3 World Trade Center, overlooking the reflecting pools. `

She shares her emotional story and the personal significance of having an art studio at the World Trade Center campus.

Watch the full episode and the entire Never Bet Against New York series:  It’s Been 25 Years Since 9/11, and This New Video Series Highlights the Resilience of Lower Manhattan

How an Artist Found Peace After Losing Her Sister on 9/11

For years after the events on September 11, abstract impressionist painter  Kerry Irvine | High Line Nine  avoided Lower Manhattan altogether. Her younger sister, Kristin “Kristy” Irvine-Ryan, had been working in the South Tower and was killed in the attacks just three months after her wedding.

In 2017, Irvine found herself inside the new World Trade Center almost by accident. Now—nine years and five studios later—Irvine paints high above the city in 3 World Trade Center, overlooking the 9/11 Memorial. In a new interview, Irvine, who is the subject of the new docuseries on Lower Manhattan titled Never Bet Against New York, opened up to Oprah Daily about her sister, the years when grief made it difficult for her to paint, and how returning to the place she once feared became, unexpectedly, the last step in her healing.

Have you always been a painter?

My mom was an abstract painter, and I went to school to be a painter, too. She was very encouraging, but you couldn’t be a full-time artist—not unless you had a trust fund or were willing to be really poor. My second love was fashion; I found a job at Ralph Lauren in the 1990s, went into the advertising department by chance, then slowly worked my way in. I got to work with some of the best photographers in the world, with so many great creatives.

But even before 9/11, I knew I just didn’t love the work anymore. I wanted something more, more independence to work on my art. I was still painting. By no means was I selling things; it was more for myself. When I decided to quit and go freelance—in February 2001—it was an absurd thing to do at the time. There was no Affordable Care Act, no safety net. I was afraid to tell my dad. But Kristy, my sister, was so positive about me doing it.

Tell us more about Kristy.

She was a bad***. Beautiful, tough, beloved by friends. I’m one of five girls, the middle child, and we were all as close as sisters can be, but Kristy and I were only 22 months apart and had lived together since we were teeny-tiny. We were also roommates as adults: she and my brother-in-law, Brendan, were high school sweethearts, and the three of us lived together for a while. We had the best time.

We lost our mom young to ovarian cancer. But I’ve always said she was able to let go because we were all set in life: two sisters were married, Kristy and I had both gotten our dream jobs—I was a stylist, Kristy was an equities trader at the World Trade Center. I worked in a really vain part of the world and could be very uptight. But she was fun and easygoing; she was the calm side to me. She was the best part of all of us.

You’ve said you stopped painting after 9/11. How did you find your way back?

I didn’t actually stop painting, but I stopped doing anything big. I threw out a lot of big stuff that I had worked on. If I had to go to a party, or bring a birthday gift, I would create and work so small. Because painting meant being alone, and solitude was scary.

After the 2008 financial crash, advertising jobs dried up. One of my best friends, an interior designer, started telling me to create more—to let her try and sell a few of my things. With her encouragement, I got back to bigger art, though I still couldn’t work on canvas until later. It was a slow process, and I was still a freelance stylist. Right before COVID, I had one client left and decided to pivot to painting.

When COVID hit, we couldn’t come back to the studio, but somehow, I had been smart and ordered a bunch of supplies. I switched back to acrylic paint and did very well. Then after COVID, it was fascinating to be back at the studio. You can see the difference between the pieces that I was doing at home, in a tight space, where I couldn’t move my arms—and the ones I can do now. My pieces got bigger and more fluid again.

You also—understandably—didn’t want to come downtown for a long time. What changed?

In 2017, I met a friend of a friend, an artist who has this incredible studio space in the new World Trade Center. I never came down there. It was too scary for me—not of physical harm, but emotional. But I thought, “You know what? I’ll just go see it.” It was a hot May day. I got out of the subway, went to the front doors, looked around, and saw that it’s right across the street from the memorial pools. My sister Kristy was in the south tower, and her name is smack-dab in the middle of the South Pool. So I knew exactly where she was, and it comforted me.

The space [in the World Trade Center] is big and raw and beautiful. The artist was lovely, one of the first who had come to work with Silverstein Properties. I just kept thinking about it, and eventually I realized that I was so tired of waiting for life to happen to me. So I Googled Dara McQuillan [chief marketing officer at the World Trade Center and Silverstein Properties] and cold-emailed him about a space. He got back to me the very next morning.

And what does this studio space mean to you now?

This was the last step in healing. My family was nervous about me being down here, but they’ve come to see it over the years. And honestly, nothing bad has ever happened to me here. It’s a very healing place. Everyone is so encouraging; this studio space is a gift I don’t know that I could ever in my lifetime repay. There’s something calming and spiritual here. I can look outside and there Kristy is. And here I am.

Kerry Irvine’s Healing Studio Above the 9/11 Memorial

Kerry Irvine, an abstract expressionist painter and former Ralph Lauren stylist, has found a profound sense of closure and creative renewal in her current studio on the 80th floor of 3 World Trade Center, directly overlooking the 9/11 Memorial highlinenine.org+1.

From Avoidance to Engagement

After her sister Kristin — an equities trader who worked in the South Tower — died in the September 11 attacks just months after their wedding, Irvine struggled to paint for years Yahoo. The trauma and grief made the act of creation feel impossible, and she avoided returning to Lower Manhattan. . In the years after 9/11, Irvine found it too difficult to paint, but eight years later she returned to the brush. 

The opportunity to work in a high‑above‑the‑city studio, close to the memorial where her sister’s name is inscribed, became a turning point . As Irvine has said, “Entering the building each day, I pass her name, now etched in the nearby 9/11 Memorial… I can touch her name and come upstairs and work”   

Yahoo+1. This proximity to the memorial, combined with the elevated vantage point, has allowed her to confront her loss in a way that feels both intimate and liberating.  

Art as Healing

Irvine describes working in these studios as “the last step of my healing” Yahoo. The view of the city from her studio — and the ability to walk down to the memorial — has helped her process grief and integrate it into her identity. She has said that if her work moves someone emotionally, “I’ve done my job” Yahoo.

Her paintings, often bold and gestural, draw on color, form, and personal experience, and have been influenced by both her own journey and the history of the site highlinenine.org+1. The studio’s light and space complement her expressive style, and the act of creating there has become a ritual of remembrance and renewal.

A New Relationship with Grief and Painting

By reclaiming her creative practice in this location, Irvine has transformed her relationship with grief: it is no longer a barrier to art, but a wellspring. The studio has become a place where memory, loss, and hope intersect — and where she can paint with the conviction that her work is part of the city’s and her own rebuilding Yahoo+1.

In short,  KERRY IRVINE moving into the WTC studio was not just a professional decision — it was a personal act of healing, turning a place of trauma into a place of strength, remembrance, and artistic renewal.

Irvine has said that entering the building each day and passing her sister’s name “has been the last step of my healing”, helping her bring closure to her grief Yahoo. She no longer feels afraid to be “down here” and can now work with a sense of peace, touching her sister’s name before starting her paintings Yahoo+1.

The studio’s elevated vantage point offers both a physical and symbolic connection to the site of the tragedy. Irvine has called this space her “favorite” and noted that each location she’s worked from has shaped her art and her personal journey www.avenue.art. Her work—bold, colorful, and often inspired by nature, the human figure, and emotional landscapes—reflects this blend of personal memory and public history highlinenine.org+1.

For Irvine, the act of painting in this place has transformed her relationship with loss: it has allowed her to turn grief into creative energy, using color, form, and gesture to process emotion and connect with a broader community of survivors and witnesses Yahoo+1.

In her own words, if her work moves someone emotionally, “I’ve done my job” Yahoo—a mission that now includes honoring her sister’s memory and the resilience of the city that rebuilt itself after 9/11.

Kerry Irvine’s story is not just about returning to Lower Manhattan — it’s about descending into the underworld of her own grief and discovering that the studio overlooking the 9/11 Memorial was not a room, but a threshold.

The concise takeaway: Opening that studio placed her directly above the wound she had spent years circling. Instead of retraumatizing her, it became the crucible where grief transmuted into paint, ritual, and meaning.

The Refusal of the Call

For years, she couldn’t bring herself to walk those streets. Lower Manhattan was not just a location — it was a site of rupture. Her avoidance wasn’t weakness; it was a protective spell, a psychological boundary her nervous system drew to survive.

This is the phase Joseph Campbell would call Refusal of the Return — when the survivor cannot yet face the place where the world broke.

The Threshold Moment

Opening a studio overlooking the memorial was an act of mythic courage. She placed herself at the edge of the abyss — not inside it, not consumed by it, but in relationship with it.

The studio became a liminal chamber:

• high windows framing the void
• the memorial’s dark water breathing below
• the city’s hum rising like a pulse

It was the architecture of a confrontation she could finally bear.

The Descent

Working there forced her to metabolize what she had long kept at arm’s length. Grief became a material — something she could touch, smear, layer, scrape. Her canvases shifted from abstraction to emotional cartography, mapping the terrain of loss with color instead of language.

Painting became a ritual of descent:

• each brushstroke a step downward
• each canvas a chamber
• each finished piece a relic carried back from the underworld

The Transformation

By facing the memorial daily, she rewrote her relationship with grief. It stopped being a shadow stalking her from behind. It became a companion — not benign, but knowable.

Her art changed because she changed:

• more texture
• more risk
• more emotional velocity
• more willingness to let the canvas hold what her body once carried alone

This is the mythic moment of return with the elixir — when the survivor brings back something that can heal not only themselves, but others.

🜁 The Studio as a Sacred Site

The studio wasn’t simply a workspace. It was a sanctuary, a vantage point where she could witness grief without drowning in it.

It offered three gifts:

• Perspective — the memorial seen from above, not from within
• Containment — a room where emotion could be held by walls, not by her alone
• Agency — she chose to be there; grief didn’t drag her there

This shift — from avoidance to chosen proximity — is what transformed her.

🜄 What Her Story Teaches About Grief

Kerry Irvine’s journey reveals a truth many people living the “long goodbye” eventually discover:

Grief becomes bearable when you can face it from a place of safety.

Her studio was that place. Her paintings were the language. Her transformation was a myth.

The concise takeaway: Kerry Irvine’s artistic evolution is a grief‑alchemy: her canvases shift from avoidance to confrontation, from abstraction to emotional cartography, from distance to direct dialogue with the 9/11 wound. Her style becomes a symbolic record of her changing relationship to trauma — each phase a different mythic posture toward the void. 

1. The Era of Distance — “Grief as Atmosphere”

In the years when she could not return to Lower Manhattan, her paintings carried grief indirectly. They were atmospheric, gestural, often dominated by diffuse fields of color.

• Emotional diffusion — feelings spread across the canvas without focal point
• Avoidant composition — no central rupture, no explicit wound
• Symbolic fog — layers that obscure rather than reveal

These works function like protective veils. She painted around grief, not through it.

Symbolic posture: She stands at the edge of the forest, unwilling to enter.

🜁 2. The Threshold Shift — “The Studio as Portal”

Opening a studio overlooking the 9/11 Memorial changed her visual language. The memorial’s dark water, its architectural gravity, its ritual repetition — all became part of her daily sensory field.

Her paintings begin to show:

• Vertical tension — strokes that rise and fall like the memorial’s descending pools
• Architectural echoes — grid‑like structures, voids, apertures
• Controlled rupture — intentional breaks in texture

She is no longer avoiding the wound; she is studying its shape.

Symbolic posture: She places one foot across the threshold.

🜂 3. The Descent Phase — “Grief as Material”

Once she began painting in proximity to the memorial, her canvases thickened. Texture became central — scraped layers, dragged pigment, sedimented surfaces.

This is the phase where grief becomes tactile.

• Sedimented layers — grief accumulating like geological strata
• Aggressive mark‑making — strokes that feel like impact, like memory striking surface
• Chromatic volatility — sudden shifts from muted tones to violent color

Her paintings begin to resemble emotional excavation sites — each layer a chamber of the underworld.

Symbolic posture: She descends, willingly, into the cavern.

🜄 4. The Integration Phase — “The Wound as Horizon”

Over time, her work softens again — but not into avoidance. Instead, it becomes integrative: grief and beauty coexist without contradiction.

Her canvases show:

• Harmonic turbulence — chaos and calm held in the same frame
• Reclaimed luminosity — light emerging from the very textures that once signified rupture
• Spatial reconciliation — voids and masses in dialogue rather than conflict

This is the stage where the memorial is no longer a site of terror but a companion — a presence she can paint with, not against.

Symbolic posture: She returns from the underworld carrying the elixir.

Synthesis: What Her Evolution Reveals

Kerry Irvine’s artistic trajectory mirrors the mythic arc of trauma integration:

Phase	Symbolic Function	Artistic Signature
Distance	Protection	Diffuse fields, atmospheric abstraction
Threshold	Confrontation	Architectural echoes, vertical tension
Descent	Processing	Thick texture, ruptures, chromatic volatility
Integration	Transformation	Luminosity, reconciliation, harmonic turbulence

Her art becomes a map of grief learning to breathe.

Jennifer Nettles sings “Go Rest High on That Mountain” at NYC 9/11 Ceremony – YouTube

Jennifer Nettles sing ‘Go rest high on that mountain’ for those lost on 9/11

Jennifer Nettles Sings in Tribute to Those Who Died on 9/11

Kerry Irvine belongs to a lineage of artists who transform trauma into visual language — but her evolution is distinct because she paints in direct daily proximity to the site of rupture. Her work sits at the intersection of memorial‑based art (like Wolfgang Staehle), grief‑metabolizing abstraction (like Joan Mitchell), and post‑trauma materiality (like Anselm Kiefer). What sets her apart is the intimacy of her vantage point: she paints above the wound, not after it.

Twenty five years ago, when Wolfgang Staehle installed his webcam  9/11 Footage (WTC, Wolfgang Staehle)  on Downtown Manhattan to create a live-video feed to Postmasters Gallery during his September exhibition, he had no idea that, by the 11th of that month, his work would meticulously record the day’s massive destruction and deaths, and would witness the opening of a new world-history book.
Staehle 2001 (which, back then, included two additional synchronized, real-time projections transmitted from locations in the artist’s native Germany) was a live still-life of sorts, its inanimate (or, from a distance, imperceptibly animate) components being the urban architecture—in New York’s case the bridges, skyscrapers, and the FDr Drive.
By 8:46 AM on 9/11/2001 the artist’s intended elegy to the seemingly eventless passage of time turned into an epitome of tragic eventfulness. Moreover, Staehle, whose work had meant to decry “spectacle,” was suddenly in possession of the very footage that most TV stations would covet (in order to ultimately promote spectacle). There are less than a handful of videos that happened to capture the first plane’s approach and piercing of the World Trade Center’s North Tower. Yet no matter the offers and interests, Staehle held on tight to his recordings.
exactly a decade later, the Manhattan part of 2001 was shown as a video in the Goethe institute’s small east Third Street space. over the course of four days, starting on September 10th, visitors could watch the city’s Before and After all over again, yet this time knowing how a serene and absurdly carefree sky would soon turn all dark (along with parts of our collective outlook on life). it was like a glimpse at a distant yet sore past, mediated and unreal, just as many of us initially experienced that day.
Staehle’s work did what it originally set out to do: making you see one random (yet fateful) day with an eye from afar and in the context of the progress and regress, destruction and rebuilding that humankind has forever been involved in.
The silent, occasionally flickering image of the double projection suddenly falls in line with the many paintings or photographs of other infernos in history, perhaps rome, Constantinople, Hiroshima . . . and you can’t help wondering what kind of wisdom recurrence or hindsight have really given us.
2001 in 2011 was both painful and cathartic—as an unintentional allegory of life’s potential for disastrous turns but also as a memorial to the hidden individuals buried by the grand sweeps of history. 9/11 Footage (WTC, Wolfgang Staehle)

* SABINE RUSS is a writer and BOMB’s managing editor.

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Painting Resilience: Kerry Irvine │Never Bet Against New YorkKerry Irvine Fine Art | New York City | Abstract Impressionist

Kerry Irvine | National September 11 Memorial & Museum

List of victims of the September 11 attacks (A–G) – Wikipedia

The 9/11 victim who saved gymnasts across America

Story by Elizabeth Merrill

Key takeaways

• Gymnastics Dedication: From high school to Iowa State, Sopper was a committed gymnast, shaping routines, pushing teammates, and striving for excellence.
• Tragic 9/11 Flight: On Sept. 11, 2001, Sopper boarded American Airlines Flight 77 to pursue her dream of coaching at UCSB, but the plane was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon.
• Program Savior: Alongside Jennifer Bannon, she saved UCSB’s gymnastics program, becoming head coach and inspiring athletes with her fierce determination.

On September 11th, 2001, Mari-Rae Sopper was on her way to California, ready to start her job as Head Coach of the women’s team at UC Santa Barbara.  Sopper, a former standout at Iowa State, was known as “ISUFan” on the fromer College Gymnastics Board.  She had given up her job as a Navy JAG Corp lawyer to pursue her dream, and to help save the cancelled program at UCSB.  She lost her life during the events of that fateful day, as the plane she was on was deliberately crashed into the Pentagon.  We pause to remember her spirit and dedication to the sport, and her inspiring effort to pursue her dreams, as well as the others who lost their lives that fateful day.

That’s where the 35-year-old was headed when she boarded American Airlines Flight 77. She was on her way to the University of California at Santa Barbara (USCB) to the job of her dreams: women’s gymnastics coach. She had accepted the post in August, knowing that the school intended to phase out the team after this season. But that didn’t deter the tenacious five-foot-two gymnast and lawyer. She planned to persuade the school to keep the team alive. 

“One thing she taught me is, you never settle for less than you’re capable of,” said Sopper’s high school gymnastics coach, Larry Petrillo. He met her 20 years ago on his first day at William Fremd High School in Palatine, Illinois. She was only 15 then, but she was brash. (“Bullheaded,” says her mother, Marion Kminek.) Sopper walked into the gym and told Petrillo what he should do to turn around the ailing girls’ gymnastics team. Then she helped him do it. She was named an all-American in four events, the school’s Athlete of the Year and the state’s Outstanding Senior Gymnast of the Year. 

She garnered more honors at Iowa State University. 

Sopper earned a Law degree from the Denver University School of Law while working as an assistant coach at the Colorado Gymnastics Institute. In 1996 she moved to Washington, where she joined the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG) as a lieutenant, defending sailors in their appeals of criminal cases for four years. 

For the past year, she had worked in the franchise litigation section at the the law firm of Schmeltzer Aptaker & Shepard, and in her spare time, she worked as an assistant gymnastics coach and choreographer at The George Washington University. The UCSB job finally fulfilled her desire to work in gymnastics full time. 

On the morning of September 11, as she left for California, she exuded joy. 

Her former JAG colleague, Jim Bailey, drove her to Dulles International Airport. He helped her unload her luggage and her kitty crate. He gave her a hug and said, “Call me when you get to Santa Barbara.” He got in his car, honked and she turned around and waved. “She was so excited,” Bailey said.

Within Her Grasp: Mari-Rae Sopper   Amazon.com: Books

Mari-Rae Sopper (1966-2001) – Find a Grave Memorial

Meet the Heroes – 9/11 Pentagon Memorial

The story of Mari-Rae Sopper, a 35-year-old attorney who … – Facebook

1 day ago · The story of Mari-Rae Sopper, a 35-year-old attorney who gave up a high-paying corporate lawyer job to coach at UCSB, …

JENNIFER BANNON RECALLS the emotions more than the specifics when she thinks about her last summer in college. It’s been 25 years. She was a gymnast at UC Santa Barbara and was working an internship in Washington, D.C.

Back on campus, a crisis began to brew. Her coach had resigned and the school was searching for a replacement. As the lone returning senior, and a captain, Bannon helped review résumés. She stopped when she came across a familiar name: Mari-Rae Sopper.

“I recognized her because she coached a lot of my friends — girls that I went to high school with,” Bannon says. “I just remember, ‘Oh, I know this woman. She’s so great.'”

At the time, Sopper wasn’t feeling so great. She was living in D.C. and had just resigned from her job as a corporate attorney. The former Iowa State gymnast sent what was certainly the most eclectic résumé — it included a stint in the Navy JAG Corps — to UCSB.

The women waited and reconnected until unexpected news came from California. The athletic department announced it was cutting the program entirely and immediately.

Sopper had yet to be hired, but Bannon turned to her for ideas on how to save the program.

“She was so small but fierce,” Bannon says. “All I could think about was, ‘Man, I don’t want to be on your bad side.’ Because she’s a bulldog. She is a bulldog.”

A three-day blitz from Bannon and Sopper convinced the school to grant the program one more year and to name Sopper head coach. She reached out to the gymnasts and formulated a strategy to not only save the program beyond 2001-02, but to make the Gauchos a national contender.

In the waning days of summer, Bannon and Sopper sat in a restaurant and made plans to fly back to California together on Sept. 11, 2001.

“The last thing we talked about was she showed me the conditioning that she was going to have us do for the first week,” Bannon says, recalling massive numbers of push-ups, mountain climbers and pull-ups.

She moved up her travel plans by a week to get a head start on the workouts and flew home solo.

“I always [look back] and say, ‘I think that conditioning sheet saved my life.'”

ON THE MORNING of Sept. 11, Mari-Rae Sopper boarded American Airlines Flight 77 at Dulles International Airport with her orange tabby named Sammy, chasing a dream of coaching college gymnastics.

Loose snapshots of her life, and death, pop up sometimes in September when vignettes of the 2,977 lives lost on 9/11 appear on social media. They tell a story of a 35-year-old attorney who gave up a high-paying corporate lawyer job to coach at UCSB, taking a roughly 70% pay cut, and died on the way to her dream when her plane was taken over by hijackers and intentionally crashed into the Pentagon.

Sometimes videos are posted of Sopper carrying her cat through security while two of the hijackers wait in line behind her.

The narrative isn’t entirely accurate. Sopper actually quit that corporate job earlier in the summer because she hated it, because she loved representing the underdog and never got comfortable being the big entity doing the squashing. She left because gymnastics was her true love.

Five days after that much-anticipated flight to California, friends and family packed into the Fremd High School gym in Palatine, Illinois, to say goodbye.

Jim Bailey, one of a handful of friends to eulogize Sopper, told mourners that he met her at a costume party — she dressed up like a cow; he was a fighter pilot. They ate sushi together and saw movies that Bailey didn’t necessarily want to see but often wound up liking. Bailey was the one generally tasked with taking her to the airport, and before that last ride, he contemplated mentioning the merits of the D.C. taxi service.

But like so many others, he couldn’t say no to Mari-Rae. Her purse that morning was the size of a duffel bag, and her cat was making a mess in her condo because he was sick from a relaxant. Bailey helped her coax Sammy into his carrier.

The drive to Dulles Airport was picturesque on a sun-splashed morning. When Bailey dropped her off, she stopped and looked at him for a moment.

“Jim,” she told him, “I don’t have any ones.”

It wasn’t profound, but captured Sopper’s mindset. 

He said she was so excited the night before that she couldn’t sleep. She was ready to get to Santa Barbara and go to work. Bailey tipped the baggage handler, gave Sopper a hug and a kiss, and got in the car.

“Call me when you get to Santa Barbara,” he told her.

In life, Sopper dreamed of saving a seemingly hopeless college gymnastics program. She had no idea that in death, she’d impact so many others.

SHE WAS DESTINED to be a coach. In 1981, Fremd High hired Larry Petrillo to turn around a struggling program, and his biggest critic was a sophomore gymnast. Sopper gave him lineup suggestions. When Petrillo told the team his optimistic expectations of a possible state bid in three years, Sopper corrected him.

“No,” she said. “We’ll make it to state this year. Next year, we’ll trophy. And the year after that, we’re going to win it.”

Her mother, Marion Kminek, says Sopper fell in love with the sport as a little girl when Nadia Comaneci became the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 at the 1976 Olympics. Sopper also strived for perfection, and spent hours coming up with strategies for practice.

She did much of the choreography for her teammates’ floor routines and tried to bring them along the best she could. But sometimes, Petrillo says, her intensity could be a bit much. He thought her predictions seemed unrealistic. Fremd had never been to state in school history.

“I thought, ‘OK, she’s a sophomore in high school,'” he says, “What does she know?”

With Sopper constantly pushing her teammates, and herself, Fremd won districts her sophomore year and finished second in state the next. Senior year, the Vikings had an early lead at state but fell short of the title.

The next two seasons, behind Sopper’s younger sister Tammy, Fremd won back-to-back state championships.

“Tammy was a natural,” Petrillo says. “Tammy spent a quarter of the time preparing and she was better than Mari-Rae was.”

Petrillo, who eventually forged a deep appreciation for Mari-Rae Sopper, says she was committed to gymnastics her whole life.

“She loved being out there for the world to see.”

Sopper walked on at Iowa State in the fall of 1984 and didn’t let up. She had a good sense of humor, says former Cyclones standout Julie Sullivan, but didn’t like to tell jokes in the gym. She worked hard, studied hard, and, since her relationships with her boyfriends were usually intense, her breakups were hard.

“She was very much a true north kind of friend,” Sullivan says. “That one friend who will be like, ‘Yes, you look bad in that dress’ or ‘Yes, you need to leave your husband.'”

Sopper went on to be Iowa State’s Most Valuable Gymnast senior year. She knew she’d need her master’s degree to become a college head coach, so she went to the University of North Texas. But jobs were scarce.

“When she graduated college and gymnastics was no longer a thing,” her sister, Tammy Sopper Segovia, says, “she would always go to all the different events. She was still a part of that community. I think that had to be really hard on her.”

With nowhere to use her master’s degree in athletic administration, and no job that rewarded her zeal for the sport, she went to law school in Denver. Her father, Bill, had wanted her to be a lawyer. She satisfied her coaching itch, somewhat, by serving as a grad assistant at the University of Denver for a year and choreographing floor routines for young gymnasts. That’s how Jennifer Bannon met Sopper, who coached some of her high school friends.

When Sopper landed at the Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps, people close to her found it an unusual fit. Sopper wasn’t good at being a follower. She didn’t like the Navy’s dress code, particularly its stance on skirts, which were to fall to the middle of the calves. She didn’t find it flattering, so she had her skirts hemmed just below the knees.

“She did what she wanted,” Sopper Segovia says.

She had a massive case load, but always worked tirelessly for the underdog.

“She [would] come home for Christmas or Easter,” Sopper Segovia says, “and we’re all at the dinner table and she’s talking and she’s so certain that they’re all innocent … She just really believed all of them.”

Sopper juggled her time mentoring at-risk youth in the area and helping the coaching staffs at George Washington University and the U.S. Naval Academy women’s gymnastics club team.

When her time at the JAG Corps ended, corporate law seemed like the next natural step. The money was great, but the hours consumed her.

“She absolutely hated everything about it,” her sister says. “Hated what it stood for. And gymnastics was so much a part of her identity. It was really hard for her not to be involved with it.”

Still, Sopper Segovia was stunned when her sister resigned.

“I thought she was nuts,” she says. “I’m like, ‘Why are you doing this?'”

ELITE GYMNASTS WHO GREW UP in the 1990s, Cara Koch says, sometimes spent 40 hours a week in a gym as grade schoolers and sacrificed many of the rituals of childhood. Earning a college scholarship, Koch says, was her last hurrah.

She planned to enjoy her time at UCSB.

All that ended when she was a junior in the summer of 2001. Koch grabbed her Nokia flip phone to retrieve a voicemail. She says it was from the athletic director’s secretary informing her that the gymnastics program was being terminated immediately. Her scholarship would be honored for a year, but Koch and her teammates were blindsided. They had no time to transfer.

Back in D.C., Sopper and Bannon brainstormed ways to save the program. Bannon said she had multiple conversations with athletic department officials and told them they couldn’t cut a program for a group of athletes with such a short window of competition and no time to transfer with practice weeks away.

A spokesperson for USCB told ESPN via email that the athletic department no longer has anyone in the department who was around in 2001 during the gymnastics cuts.

Days after the program was discontinued, the administration restored both the women’s and men’s programs, according to The Associated Press. UCSB hired Sopper roughly two weeks later. It still planned to terminate the program the following year unless the program could raise $4 million to stay afloat.

Sopper immediately went to work. She learned everything she could about each of her new gymnasts, and started putting together workout schedules and fundraising plans.

Talia Upchurch, who was an incoming junior at UCSB in the summer of 2001, was encouraged by her diligence.

“She called each one of us on the phone, every single teammate on the phone,” Upchurch says, “and said, ‘I’m going to save your program.’ I’ll never forget that phone call because it meant so much to me.”

SOPPER PLANNED TO DRIVE to Santa Barbara at first, but her mom told her flying would be safer.

On Sept. 3, she wrote an email to her friends and family with the subject line, “new city, new state, new job . . .” She apologized for not being in touch sooner, and said the past two weeks had been “a bit crazy.” She included her new office number with a Santa Barbara area code, effective Sept. 11.

She signed the note.

Mari-Rae Sopper

Head Women’s Gymnastics Coach

University of California-Santa Barbara

She called her old high school coach a few days before her flight, and Petrillo heard a different tone in her voice that reminded him of her days back in high school. She once again plotted plans that seemed unrealistic.

But this time, Petrillo wasn’t the least bit skeptical.

On Sept. 11, Petrillo was in the social studies office at Fremd High School watching in horror as the Twin Towers fell. He turned to his department chair.

“You know,” he said, “this is going to touch somebody at this school.”

Then Petrillo heard the news. Mari-Rae Sopper was dead.

Back in California, Bannon watched the news and waited to hear from Sopper. Bannon had agreed to take care of Sammy while Sopper got settled and was on call for a tabby pickup. When her phone finally rang, it was Alice Henry, UCSB’s senior women’s athletic director.

“I remember this really vividly,” Bannon says. “She goes, ‘I’m so sorry, kiddo.’ And then my heart just sank, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’ I knew exactly what she meant instantly.”

The team barbecue scheduled for that Sunday was canceled. Weeks worth of optimism evaporated.

UCSB dedicated the season to Sopper, and tried to compete the best they could. Sopper’s family started a memorial fund in the hopes of raising enough money to keep the program going. It wasn’t nearly enough to reach the athletic department’s goal.

“We didn’t have the hope of really saving the program because she was our person,” Upchurch says. “After that, they just kind of gave up. The athletic department just kind of gave up after that happened.”

Koch, who was rehabbing from shoulder surgery, showed up for practice one day. A new assistant coach — who happened be her old UCSB teammate — told her that she wouldn’t suit up or compete that season because she didn’t think Koch would recover in time.

“…The uniforms had been ordered but not one for me,” the junior captain said. “And that was it. My 18-year gymnastics career was over.”

She wrote a letter to her teammates encouraging them to enjoy their final season.

Bannon says it was a “very challenging” season, with young coaches scrambling to lead a team fully aware of its looming expiration date.

Bannon couldn’t help but think of Sopper’s family, and all their efforts with the fund. She couldn’t stop thinking of Mari-Rae. Bannon says she emptied her bank account and her frequent-flier miles to fly Sopper’s family out for the final meet of the season. She convinced a hotel in downtown Santa Barbara to give the family a free room.

“I felt like Mari-Rae was there,” Bannon says, crying. “I knew how much it meant for her parents, her mom and her stepdad, to be there, where they could just see Mari-Rae being a part of gymnastics. And yeah, it was wonderful.”

IN 2012, THE PLATTSBURGH High School gymnastics team in New York faced elimination because of budget cuts. Janice Trudeau, the longtime coach at Plattsburgh who also runs a gym in the northeastern fringes of upstate New York, knew if Plattsburgh’s program was eliminated, the other two teams in their conference would likely be axed, too. So the rival schools, Plattsburgh, Peru and Beekmantown, banded together to fundraise that summer. They set up tables with tip jars outside Walmart and did somersaults and handsprings for donations.

Trudeau recalls that someone at the store told them they needed to sell something to solicit funds, so they made cheap buttons that said, “I Support HS Gymnastics.” But it wasn’t enough.

Bob Bunnell, who ran the booster club, reached out to Marion Kminek. He’d heard about the Mari-Rae Sopper Gymnastics Memorial Fund, and was desperate. After a brief conversation, Sopper’s mom wrote a check for $6,223.57 — all the money left in the 11-year-old charity.

The fund had helped MIT gymnastics and the Palatine park district where a young Mari-Rae used to plot her future. It provided funds for USA Gymnastics and for a Chicago art center for at-risk children.

And it provided enough money for Plattsburgh to compete in the 2012-13 season. It allowed children such as Allie Timmons, who was in sixth grade at the time, the chance to compete for Peru High gymnastics.

Less than a year later, Bunnell wrote Kminek an email with an exclamation mark in the header.

“Thanks for saving HS Gymnastics!”

For at least five years, the programs for the teams’ sectionals featured a black-and-white photo of a young woman with impeccably combed bangs on a balance beam. It told a brief story about Mari-Rae Sopper, the woman who couldn’t save UCSB’s program, but helped salvage theirs.

“She helped keep our program together, and she was a gymnast,” says Timmons, who was 6 months old when Sopper died on 9/11. “I just remember hearing her story, and I don’t think I will ever forget.”

Timmons didn’t like high school much, and gymnastics, she says, saved her. She qualified for state multiple times, and recently, she started coaching at Janice Trudeau’s gym. She hopes to eventually take over for Trudeau.

Bannon never planned to make a career out of gymnastics the way Timmons and Sopper did. Her body was breaking down and she considered calling it quits.

But then she reconnected with Sopper that summer in D.C.

“This woman — I couldn’t imagine not doing one more year and having the pleasure of working with her,” Bannon says. “She was such an inspiration to me.”

One day in the final stretch of summer, just before flying to California in that first week of September, Bannon visited the FBI museum. She was enthralled with the tour and envisioned a future with the bureau.

When Sopper died, Bannon made up her mind. Today, she’s an agent in the FBI’s Los Angeles field office.

“After 9/11, I just said, ‘There’s no other path,'” Bannon says. “There’s no other option. This is what I’m doing.”

The 9/11 victim who saved gymnasts across America – ESPN

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9/11 Tribute: September Skies – A Tribute to Never Forget 

A Song for the Ones Who Never Came Home, And Those Who Are Still Suffering #911Tribute

September Skies – A Tribute to Never Forget 

Genelle Guzman McMillan in the hospital after 9/11. “I was thinking, ‘I’m going to die,’” says of spending 27 hours in the wreckage after Tower 1 collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001 Paul Chiasson/AP

9/11: The Last Person Pulled Out Alive from World Trade Center Rubble: ‘I Was Given a New Life’

By Diane Herbst

Updated on September 11, 2026 07:46AM EDT

“I felt like I was there forever,” she says. “I just thought I was dreaming. I just figured this has to be a dream. This is not happening. And I didn’t know if anybody was going to find me. I just laid there.”

Genelle Guzman-McMillan is a Trinidadian-American writer and motivational speaker known as the last person rescued alive from the World Trade Center rubble after the September 11, 2001 attacks, having survived 27 hours trapped. Before 9/11, she worked for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Her memoir, Angel in the Rubble, recounts her ordeal, spiritual awakening, and recovery. She continues to speak publicly on resilience, faith, and purpose, inspiring audiences worldwide.

Twenty-five years ago, Genelle Guzman McMillan had been in New York City for two years after arriving from her native Trinidad, working on the 64th floor of Tower 1 in the World Trade Center as an office temp for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and “loving it,” she says.

On September 11, 2001, at 8:46 a.m. ET, a jet hijacked by Islamic terrorists hit the top floors of her 110-story building, also known as the North Tower. It shook her floor.

Feeling a second shake that Guzman McMillan, 50, later realized was from another hijacked jet hitting the second tower next door, she and a coworker named Rosa decided to walk the staircase.

In high heels and with feet aching, the then-30-year-old stopped on the 13th floor to take them off. Then the tower collapsed, at 10:28 a.m.

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“Everything just went boom,” she recalls. “Everything was crumbling and was just coming on top of me.” Guzman McMillan would be buried for 27 hours.

“I heard everything what was going on. I heard someone cry out for help in a very faint voice. I would hear the trucks and the walkie talkies going off,” Guzman McMillan shares.

“But I couldn’t call out for some reason,” she says. “Dust in my mouth, my nose. I was just laying there. Just didn’t know what to do, what to say.”

“And the pain, it was shooting, like steel was like sticking at my side, by my stomach. I only had my left hand loose, I was trying to position myself to kind of ease that pain, but it didn’t help,” Guzman McMillan adds.

Genelle Guzman McMillan and husband Roger McMillan. Courtesy Genelle Guzman

“I tried to put my head out and I realized that it was really wedged and stuck. I was thinking I’m going to die. I knew I wasn’t going to get out. I’m preparing myself to die,” she explains.

“But then I decided to pray. I just knew that I wanted to live because I wanted to see my daughter, Kimberly. She was 12 at the time. I just keep begging and praying, just asking God to show me a miracle,” she says.

“And then I was giving up. And I said, ‘Oh God, I can’t take this no more’ when I heard someone call out to me, I feel like he said, ‘I got you. My name is Paul,’” recalls Guzman McMillan.

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“He hold onto my hand. And I hold on his hands. Talking to me, telling me, ‘I’m going to be fine. I’m not going to let you go,’” she remembers.

Guzman McMillan spent 27 hours in the rubble before rescuers arrived. Her right leg was crushed, her head swollen and face burned. She was hospitalized for over a month, and doctors at one point considered amputating her leg, but a fourth surgery saved it. She now has a permanent limp.

Through this entire ordeal was Roger McMillan, her boyfriend at the time of the attacks.

While in the hospital, she asked McMillan a question that had been on her mind for awhile. “I said, ‘Honey, when I get out, let’s go to City Hall and get married,’” she says.

Courtesy Genelle Guzman

They did, on Nov. 7 of that year. “And it’s been a beautiful journey from there on,” says McMillan, 58, who works for the Port Authority at JFK Airport in its environmental unit.

“We appreciate each other knowing that there was a 99% I almost lost somebody that I fell in love with,” he says.

The couple had two daughters, now 17 and 16, and raised Guzman McMillan’s daughter from a previous relationship, now 32. They live in Valley Stream, Long Island, and enjoy staying home and spending time with their children.

Genelle Guzman McMillan and family.Courtesy Genelle Guzman

“I was given a new life,” says Guzman McMillan, now a supervisor for the Port Authority at LaGuardia airport. “I know that God has a bigger plan for me and I just try to do what is right. And encourage people in order to try to move forward despite the adversity in life. My faith is just growing stronger and stronger.”

While her nightmares about 9/11 have long ceased, McMillan notes there is one lingering psychological effect. “Regrets of her losing her best friend or coworkers,” he says. “She has that kind of like survivor’s remorse — ‘Why did my coworkers die and I survived?’ ”

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She gains strength from her Christian faith, and in 2011 published Angel in the Rubble, a memoir about her experience on 9/11 and the angel named Paul who helped her.

Guzman McMillan says she’s tried to find Paul for the last 25 years. “We never found Paul,” she shares. “So we’ve come to the conclusion that Paul truly was my angel.”

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Edna Cintrón’s life was almost predictable – and she couldn’t have asked for more.

Neither she nor her husband, William, was interested in the martinis and Broadway shows synonymous with life in New York City.

Instead, the pair enjoyed casino buffets at Atlantic City, collected porcelain figurines of angels and ate ice cream on the sofa.

William, who was 44 at the time, said: ‘She was also my backbone. She made me strong. She made me who I am today.’

But one day Edna, 46, went to work as an administrative assistant for insurance firm Marsh & McLennan – and never came home.

On September 11, 2001, a United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, tearing through the 93rd and 99th floors.

Edna Cintrón was ‘outspoken’, her husband said

The impact destroyed all escape routes, and worried loved ones and emergency workers alike assumed the worst.

But as people watched in disbelief as office supplies, twisted metal and concrete fell from the skies, they realised that some people had survived.

New Yorkers 400 miles below photographed and filmed a woman, believed to be Edna, standing at the edge of the flaming hole left by the jet and waving through it.

The Marsh & McLennan’s offices were on the 93rd floor, and Edna gestured for help for about 20 minutes, near another man doing the same.

She quickly became known as the ‘waving woman’

At 10.28am, the impact site collapsed, and Edna became one of the nearly 3,000 people who died that day.

In the wake of the disaster, William wandered around Manhattan carrying a photograph of his wife, asking panicked office workers and emergency responders if they’d seen her.

He tried St Vincent’s, a nearby hospital, but staff had no record of her. At the disaster site, he was turned away.

William told The Independent at the time: ‘They said we’d interfere. We can’t just be in the way.’

By September 12, he was at the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue asking how to file a missing person’s report.

Edna’s body was never recovered, although William ‘tentatively identified’ her as the woman waving in video footage, according to a memorial page.

Her gold engagement ring, however, was found in the rubble and donated to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.

Who was Edna Cintrón?

Edna was born in Puerto Rico on October 14, 1954, and her family moved to Delancey Street in Lower Manhattan when she was five.

They weren’t the richest – Edna’s mum gave her a few cents a week as pocket money. She didn’t graduate high school.

‘She experienced a lot of stuff,’ William said. 

Haunting Footage of a waving woman of 9/11 Edna Cintron – Search Videos

Edna is believed to have been the ‘waving woman’ (Picture: AFP)

Edna met her future husband in 1987. She was chatting with her friend at her home in Upper Manhattan when William walked into the kitchen.

He recalled: ‘I was charming at that time; I wore cashmere.’

The couple managed a flower shop in Harlem that they jointly owned, Sweet William’s Florist, while living in East Elmhurst, Queens.

For a spell, they were briefly homeless, and Edna supported William as he recovered from alcoholism, her obituary states. He stayed sober thanks to her support.

William said: ‘Fourteen years with her, that was my life, my world. I knew when I went home I was in the best of hands, loved, cared for.’

9/11: 25 years later

It has been 25 years since the horrific 9/11 attacks that brought down the Twin Towers in New York City, claiming the lives of thousands.

Follow Metro’s coverage of the 25th anniversary of 9/11 as we look back on the tragic attack, those who died, survived, and those who helped:

• How an injured bookkeeper helped save the lives of six firefighters on 9/11
• A tribute to all the victims who died on 9/11
• Who was the ‘red bandana man’ who saved dozens of people on 9/11?
• Remembering the children who lost their lives on the fateful 9/11 flights
• A look back at how the 9/11 attack unfolded
• The story behind 9/11’s haunting ‘Falling Man’ photo

Thousands of people died (Picture: AFP)

Willian remembered his wife not as the ‘waving woman’, but as a ‘strong’ person who always had dinner on the table when he came home.

He died on September 24, 2021, after moving to Kissimmee, Osceola County, Florida. 

He was 64.

Marsh & McLennan told Metro that it hosted a public, digital memorial that honours the 358 workers and friends who died in 9/11.

One friend wrote on a tribute page to Edna: ‘I will never forget when I first saw Edna. An amazing woman who should never be forgotten or ignored.’

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A 9/11 Survivor Finally Shares the Story She Kept Private for 25 Years

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9/11: Stories That Touch Home

Why fo they want to go home – Search Videos   delihaya / Getty Images

What “Home” Means

People with Alzheimer’s disease might express a wish to go home even if they are already there. This longing often stems from feelings of insecurity, anxiety, or depression.

Alzheimer’s disease initially affects short-term memory. “Home,” then, could be a reference to long-term memories of times and places where the person felt secure. They could be thinking of a childhood home that no longer exists.

“Home” might also be a longing for something familiar. Memory loss can make people with Alzheimer’s feel like nothing is familiar anymore. For this reason, they may connect “home” with a sense of familiarity and belonging.¹ They may long for the intimacy of family life.

“Home” in this context probably doesn’t mean the place where the person currently lives, or lived prior to moving to a care facility. Instead, it may mean a place in the past where they felt secure and happy.

This is likely what your loved one is expressing. “Home” may be a desire to reconnect with childhood. For many people, that is the time of life that provided the most security, intimacy, and comfort.

If They Are Home

If the person is residing in their home rather than a nursing home or assisted living facility and asks to go home, how can you respond? Explain and reassure them that they are at home. This may help them feel secure.

Reminiscing Can Provide Comfort 

The next time your loved one talks about going “home,” remember that it may be a reference to the past. Try to respond with some questions of your own. For example, you can ask about your loved one’s childhood memories, or you can look at old family photographs together. Reminiscing about childhood and the home where the person grew up can be comforting.

You might also try using validation therapy. With this approach, you validate your loved one’s experiences and emotions by asking questions that help them process their feelings. This can help your loved one work through the loss of their sense of comfort.² Some questions could include:

• What was your childhood house like?
• Do you miss it?
• What was the best thing about your family?
• What was your favorite home-cooked food?
• How did the kitchen smell?
• Did you share a bedroom with your siblings?

Try echoing your loved one’s feelings. For example, you could say, “You must wish you could be at home right now.” This can help the person feel like you understand what they’re feeling. That can be very comforting.

Why People With Dementia Say They “Want to Go Home”

When someone with dementia says, “I want to go home,” it’s usually not about the physical address they live at today. Instead, “home” often represents a time and place in the past when they felt safe, capable, and comfortable helpdementia.com+1.

The Brain and Memory Changes

Dementia affects the brain’s memory centers, especially the hippocampus, which makes it harder to hold onto recent memories while long-term memories remain intact helpdementia.com+1. This can cause a person to:

• Forget they are in their current home or even in a care facility.
• Recall a specific earlier period in life — such as their childhood home or the house where they raised their family — as “home” helpdementia.com+1.
• Feel that the present environment is unfamiliar, unsafe, or “not right” carepatrol.com+1.

Emotional and Sensory Factors

For many, “home” is tied to emotional anchors — places linked to warmth, routine, and independence helpdementia.com+1. The desire can also be triggered by:

• Stress, fatigue, pain, or boredom www.elderloveusa.org.
• Sundowning (worsening confusion in the late afternoon/evening) www.elderloveusa.org.
• A need for comfort, familiarity, or reassurance Verywell Health+1.

What It Really Means

In dementia, “I want to go home” often means:

• “I feel unsafe or uncomfortable here.” carepatrol.com
• “I miss a time when life felt simpler and more secure.” helpdementia.com+1
• “I want something familiar and comforting.” Elder Guru+1

How to Respond

Experts recommend:

1. Validate the feeling — e.g., “You miss home. Tell me what you loved about it” www.elderloveusa.org.
2. Avoid arguing about location — focus on comfort and connection www.elderloveusa.org.
3. Use reminiscence — share old photos, talk about childhood memories Verywell Health.
4. Reassure with simple facts — “We are staying here tonight. I will make some tea” www.elderloveusa.org.
5. Check for unmet needs — comfort, routine, or sensory triggers www.elderloveusa.org.

In short: They “want to go home” because their brain is searching for a place and time when they felt safe and whole — not necessarily the physical house they live in now helpdementia.com+2. Understanding this helps caregivers respond with empathy rather than correction, reducing distress and building trust.

Addressing “I Want to Go Home” from Older Loved Ones with Dementia

While the National Center for Assisted Living estimates that the one million Americans living in a senior living community will double by the year 2030, placing a parent in assisted living is a tough decision. Many families grapple with this choice, as they want the best care for their loved ones.

Assisted living communities provide seniors with the help they need with daily activities, such as bathing, getting dressed, meals, and medications.

Unfortunately, even in the top assisted living facilities, you’re likely to hear an older adult, especially with dementia, say, “I want to go home.”

Hearing this can be very hard for family caregivers, but it’s important to get to the bottom of what “home” means, how you can help your loved one, and what to do next.

Handling Guilt when Older Adults with Dementia Say “I Want to Go Home”

Hearing your loved ones say that they want to go home can be heartbreaking. Even when you know that an assisted living community is the best solution for your loved one, hearing them ask to go home often evokes feelings of guilt.

This seemingly small sentiment can make you question the quality of the facility and the choices you are making to help your seniors. Hearing your parents or spouse ask to go home often unveils feelings we may not realize we had. We may become frustrated, especially with a dementia patient or a family member with Alzheimer’s disease. It’s easy to feel helpless, and no matter what you do it does not seem like the best option.

To best help older adults when they say, “I want to go home,” we must be able to see past our initial feelings of frustration, desperation, and guilt. Rather than letting your emotions rule your response, take a step back and assess the various reasons people say they want to go home when they are in a seemingly high-quality assisted living environment.

What Does “Home” Mean?

When we hear our loved ones say they want to go “home,” we tend to think of our version of home. Based on our own concerns and feelings of guilt, we often interpret this to mean home as a place. However, there are many other ways that older people, especially those suffering from dementia, can perceive “home.”

Saying, “I want to go home,” may be another way of saying, “I don’t feel good here.” Teepa Snow breaks down the different meanings of “home” in her podcast Dementia Care Partner Talk Show Ep. 86 “I Want to Go Home!” She explains that when seniors say this, they are telling you something about their current situation that is not familiar, friendly, functional, or forgiving. It may not be a good sensory match, or something is not comfortable. What they are really saying is that they are looking for a place of comfort.

When you understand how dementia affects the brain, begging for home makes sense. Dementia first affects the hippocampus or the brain’s memory center. As the hippocampus sustains damage, people struggle to remember the timeline of their life. Where they are now versus where they are supposed to be is fuzzy. They may not always understand how they got somewhere or the landmarks around them.

Rather than interpreting “I want to go home” as meaning a physical place, interpret it as a way of asking for some important needs. It could simply mean that the person is hungry, thirsty, or tired. They may need something that they do not know how to get where they are. Asking for “home” is a way of asking for needs to be met.

For some, “home” might even signify a yearning for childhood memories, a time when they felt safe and secure. Understanding these deeper meanings can help dementia caregivers provide appropriate comfort and reassurance.

How to Respond

Hearing the cry for home, especially repeatedly, can be upsetting, annoying, and heartbreaking all at the same time. Understandably, family caregivers and even the trained nursing staff may sometimes respond based on their emotions.

However, a “you are home” or “this is your home now” will not help you or your senior. Rather than responding based on emotion or out of exasperation, try to reveal the cause of the sentiment.

Start with, “Do you need to do something at home or do you just want to be there?” The answer can reveal a lot. If they mention a specific thing they want to do there, you may be able to help them meet that need. Maybe they will tell you they need to make dinner there or they have to use the bathroom. Based on their response, you can help them find a solution.

On the other hand, if the person says they just want to be home, they have an emotional need. Maybe it is a person or a sensory detail. For example, if the older adult responds with “It’s too loud here, so I want to go home,” you can help them find a quieter area. Responding in a relaxed manner is crucial in these situations.

Another idea is to redirect. Rather than just saying no or telling them they are home, try “let’s head out.” This gives the brain new stimulation it may crave. If possible, take them for a supervised walk outside or a drive around the neighborhood.

Always bring a phone and a map just in case you need it. Simply heading out for a little bit and changing up the environment can make a huge difference.

Also, engaging the person in pleasant and distracting activities, such as puzzles, music, or storytelling, can also help shift their focus away from their distress and toward something more enjoyable.

Finding New Friends

Home is also about familiar people who love you. Helping the older adult meet new people at their new home so that they can start to be surrounded by people will go a long way toward making them feel welcome and included.

For individuals in a nursing home, building connections with staff and other residents can significantly improve their emotional well-being.

How Photos and Music Can Help Adults with Dementia Who Want to Go Home

If your loved one is wanting to go home, one way to help bring comfort is to bring in old framed photos, photo albums, or even create a digital photo frame loaded with lots of family photos so they are surrounded by familiar faces. And music can be a powerfully calming force, which draws up familiarity and comfort.

No matter what, monitor your tone. Take a deep breath and remain calm. If you need to, take a break in a safe space. How you speak to the person is just as important as what you say.

Responding When a Person With Dementia Wants to Go Home

ByAndrew Rosenzweig, MD

Updated on August 27, 2026

Medically reviewed by Brigid Dwyer, MD

Key Takeaways

• People with Alzheimer’s might say they want to go home because they feel insecure and want something familiar.
• Talk about the person’s childhood memories or look at old pictures to provide comfort.
• Validate their feelings by acknowledging their wish to go home.

When someone with dementia says they want to go home, it often reflects a need for comfort and familiarity. You can support them by responding with empathy and taking steps to ease their anxiety.

They say “I want to go home” in dementia not because they literally mean a physical house, and not because it automatically means end‑stage. It’s a symbolic cry for safety, familiarity, and relief from overwhelm.

Here’s the clear takeaway: Wanting to “go home” can happen in any stage of dementia, but the meaning behind it deepens as the disease progresses.

 What “home” actually means in dementia

When someone with dementia says they want to go home, they’re usually expressing:

• A need for comfort — the nervous system is distressed.
• A search for identity — “home” is where they remember who they were.
• A desire for safety — they feel lost, confused, or threatened.
• A longing for the past — often childhood or early adulthood.

It’s rarely about a physical address. It’s about returning to a time when life made sense.

This is one of the most universal emotional expressions in dementia.

 Why it happens

• Memory time-travel — the brain may be living in a different decade.
• Disorientation — unfamiliar surroundings feel frightening.
• Loss of autonomy — they want to escape feeling controlled or dependent.
• Sensory overload — too much noise, activity, or confusion.
• Attachment seeking — they want the person or place that made them feel safe.

 Is it end‑stage dementia?

Not necessarily.

It can appear in:

• Middle stages — when confusion increases and the person loses orientation.
• Late stages — when language becomes symbolic and emotional rather than literal.

What does suggest end‑stage?

• Very limited speech
• Difficulty swallowing
• Sleeping most of the day
• Inability to walk or sit up
• Major weight loss
• Recurrent infections
• Loss of awareness of surroundings

Saying “I want to go home” alone is not enough to determine stage.

 What helps in the moment

• Validation — “You miss home. It felt safe there.”
• Reassurance — “You’re safe. I’m right here with you.”
• Grounding — soft touch, calm voice, familiar objects.
• Redirection — “Let’s have some tea first,” or “Tell me about your home.”
• Environmental comfort — reduce noise, increase warmth, add familiar items.

 A deeper truth

“Home” is often the last metaphor the brain uses to express:

“I’m scared.” “I’m lost.” “I need you.”

It’s not a sign of giving up. It’s a sign of needing connection.

.

Why Do Dementia Patients Say They Want to Go Home? – HelpDementia.com

5 Responses to “I Want to Go Home” with Alzheimer’s

5 Responses to “I Want to Go Home” with Alzheimer’s

Who Was the Falling Man from 9/11? – Falling Man Identity Revealed

Nearly two decades after the 9/11 attacks, “The Falling Man” by Richard Drew remains one of the most unforgettable images from the tragedy. There were many scenes of chaos, destruction, and panic captured during the 9/11 attacks, but one of the most haunting images is actually a quiet one.

When Richard Drew pointed his camera up to one of the towers, among the horrors he captured were people falling from it. However, he didn’t know until later that one of the frames would turn out to become a symbol of the tragedy of every life lost that day.

TIME has included Richard Drew’s now iconic photograph in their selection of 100 most influential photographs of all time. In the 2016 video below by TIME, the Associated Press photographer recalls the harrowing events that surrounded the taking of the now-iconic photo.

When Drew got to the scene, the first thing he saw was the two towers on fire and covered in smoke. He proceeded to take his photos of the people on the streets and the burning building when he saw the trapped people falling down from it. He took shot after shot of them as they came down, one of them ended up to be the photo that would later come to be known as “The Falling Man.”

“It’s a very quiet photograph. It’s not like a lot of other violent photographs from other disasters,” he said of his poignant capture. “There’s no blood, there’s no guts, nobody getting shot. But, people react to it in a way that they feel they can relate to this photograph.”

The power of this photograph, as Drew also noted, lies in viewers being able to feel that if they were in the same situation, they might have made the same choice that the man in the photo made. It’s also probably one of the few photos that show someone dying that day — and a gripping reminder of the heartbreaking choices thrust upon countless innocent lives like the unidentified man in the photo.

Therefore, it’s not surprising that the photo, despite being disturbing to some, made rounds in different publications, including Esquire, where the photo earned its now-famous title.

THE identity of the man captured falling from the World Trade Center on 9/11 remained one of the tragedy’s most haunting mysteries for years. But a tiny clue spotted during the hunt to identify him would eventually point investigators towards one man. 

.

The infamous falling man picture, thought to be Jonathan Briley.

Jonathan Eric Briley Obituary Sep 11, 2001 – Legacy.com

A distinctive orange T-shirt worn beneath his clothes helped link the mysterious figure to World Trade Center worker Jonathan Briley. The crucial detail emerged from another photograph taken by Richard Drew moments apart, which showed the man’s outer shirt blowing open to reveal the bright orange top underneath.

Briley, 43, was a sound engineer at Windows on the World restaurant on the 106th and 107th floors of the North Tower.

He is now believed to be the most likely identity of the man immortalized in Drew’s devastating image.

Drew had captured several frames in quick succession as the man plunged from the burning skyscraper on September 11, 2001.

Esquire journalist Tom Junod later investigated the identity of the so-called “Falling Man” and concluded Briley was most likely the person pictured after speaking to Drew and examining the evidence.

Now, 25 years after the terror attacks, Briley’s sister Gwen Briley-Strand, 72, has opened up about the agonizing mystery surrounding the photograph.

She admitted the figure bore a striking resemblance to her brother.

“Truth be told, it did look like him,” she said. But Gwen said her family had initially been “very hurt” when Jonathan was suspected to be the man pictured – and she has never fixated on whether it really was him.

She said: “The photograph brought so much pain to so many people when they were trying to figure out who this person was. I remember hearing about a family who were deeply religious and, with Catholicism, this man that jumped, that’s suicide and that’s the unforgivable sin.”

But Gwen rejected the idea that those who fell or jumped from the burning towers should be judged for their final moments. “I don’t believe in an unforgivable sin. God is too benevolent. He’s too wonderful. I think the only unforgivable sin is not to believe in Him,” she said.

How an amateur photographer captured firefighters’ sacrifice on 9/11

He was one of 2,977 people killed by al-Qaeda terrorists on 9/11Credit: AP

A man standing in the rubble, and calling out asking if anyone needs help, after the collapse of the first World Trade Center Tower on September 11, 2001, in New York City Credit: AFP

“I believe that all those individuals that jumped were caught. Their spirits were caught.”

The haunting photograph became one of the defining images of 9/11, when al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger planes and killed 2,977 people.

For years, the identity of the Falling Man remained a mystery.

Instead, the figure came to represent those who died that day whose final moments were never known.

Gwen said she no longer looks at the photograph.

Instead, she holds onto memories of one final trip with Jonathan just days before his death.

He made a last-minute decision to join Gwen and her husband on a holiday to Florida the week before the attacks – something she now describes as “a gift of God.”

She said: “We were right there on the ocean and we would get up and have Kahlua and coffee and watch the sunrise. It was really special because he decided to join us at the last minute.”

A quarter of a century later, Gwen still watches anniversary coverage of the attacks every year.

She said: “There are times when it feels like 25 years but, then again, there are times when it feels like yesterday.”

But for Gwen, definitively proving whether her brother was the Falling Man ultimately does not matter.

Instead, she believes “he was a representative of all of those almost 3,000 people that had to go through that horrific day of September 11.”

Drew’s haunting photograph has since become one of the most recognisable images of the attacks.

Sister of 9/11 ‘Falling Man’ reveals truth about iconic photo and their last family holiday together a week before the attack | LBC

Photographer behind 9/11’s famous Falling Man shared truth behind controversial image

Sister of man believed to be 9/11’s ‘Falling Man’ breaks her silence 25 years later

Man who fled Twin Towers on 9/11 with briefcase recalls horrors

Why ‘the falling man’ remains 9/11’s most challenging image

The Falling Man Bing Videos is a 2006 documentary film

After being implored by Hernandez’s widow to “clear [her] husband’s name”, Junod began writing an article about the photograph.^[20] His piece, “The Falling Man”, was published in the September 2003 issue of Esquire magazine. It was adapted into a documentary film by the same name. The article gave the possible identity of the falling man as Jonathan Briley, a 43-year-old sound engineer who worked at Windows on the World. Briley had asthma and would have known he was in danger when smoke began to pour into the restaurant.^[9]

He was initially identified by his brother, Timothy.^[9] Michael Lomonaco, the restaurant’s executive chef, also suggested that the man was Briley based on his body type and clothes.^[22] In one of the photos, the Falling Man’s shirt or white jacket was blown open and up, revealing an orange t-shirt similar to one shirt that Briley often wore.^[23]

Briley’s remains were recovered the day after 9/11, though the collapse of the towers damaged the clothes he wore, making them unrecognizable except the black shoes, which resembled those from the photo.^[9] Jonathan Briley was brother to Alex Briley, a member of the band Village People.

Other uses

9/11: The Falling Man is a 2006 documentary film about the photo. It was made by American filmmaker Henry Singer and filmed by Richard Numeroff, a New York-based director of photography. The film is loosely based on Junod’s Esquire story. It also drew its material from photographer Lyle Owerko‘s pictures of falling people. It debuted on March 16, 2006, on the British television network Channel 4, later made its North American premiere on Canada‘s CBC Newsworld on September 6, 2006, and has been broadcast in more than 30 countries. The U.S. premiere was September 10, 2007, on the Discovery Times Channel.^{[citation needed]}

The novel Falling Man, by Don DeLillo, is about the September 11 attacks. The “falling man” in the novel is a performance artist recreating the events of the photograph.^[24] DeLillo says he was unfamiliar with the title of the picture when he named his book. The artist straps himself into a harness and jumps from an elevated structure in a high visibility area (such as a highway overpass), hanging in the pose of The Falling Man.

In July 2022, GameStop caused controversy by allowing a non-fungible token titled Falling Man to be listed on their newly-launched NFT platform. The digital image depicted an astronaut falling in a pose and background replicating Drew’s photograph. The seller’s description read, “This one probably fell from the MIR station“, referencing the 1997 crash of Spektr. The NFT was later delisted from the platform.^[25][26][27]

Nothing and Full of Hell‘s collaborative album When No Birds Sang is partly inspired by The Falling Man.^[28]

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has announced the release of tens of thousands of documents showing the city did not disclose all it knew about air toxicity after 9/11.

The release comes ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks that killed 2,977 people in the United States, mostly in the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York.

In the years since, more than 9,400 have died from illnesses linked to their exposure to the area, according to a federal medical monitoring program.

“These are documents that show what the city knew about the toxic air around Ground Zero, when they knew it, and how they acted to limit liability,” the mayor told a news conference following the online release of 170,000 pages of documents on health concerns, air quality and the city’s response to the attacks.

The release is part of an agreement with 9/11 Health Watch, a victims’ advocacy group that had taken legal action to compel the city to make the documents public.

“For 25 years, four different Mayoral administrations kept from the public, the US Congress, and the City Council documents showing what the City actually knew about the danger of the toxic chemicals in Lower Manhattan and Western Brooklyn after the World Trade Center collapse, even as City officials continued messaging to the public that the air was ‘safe and acceptable’,” the group’s director Benjamin Chevat said in a statement.

After the initial dust cloud that followed the collapse of the World Trade Center, months of pollution and lingering dust ensued, causing cancers that thousands of New Yorkers still suffer today.

My brother ran into the Twin Towers on 9/11. He never came out. | Opinion

Leaders ‘lied’

When asked about the names of officials who had withheld information from the public, Mamdani said, “this goes across a multitude of those that New Yorkers have trusted.”

“People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air.”

An ambulance, covered with debris, is on fire after the collapse of the first World Trade Center Tower on 11 September 2001 in New York.

AFP / Doug Kanter

Roughly 173,000 documents released Tuesday, and additional ones which will be published online in waves over the next 12 months, could implicate two former New York mayors.

They are Rudy Giuliani, in office at the time of the attacks, and then Michael Bloomberg, mayor from January 2002 to December 2013.

Some concern discussions Giuliani’s administration had at the time about its legal liability and health risks, New York City’s chief counsel Steven Banks said Tuesday.

Giuliani’s spokesman did not return a request for comment.

Another document highlights information provided by Congressman Jerry Nadler during Bloomberg’s tenure regarding concerns from residents of Lower Manhattan about the quality of the air they were breathing.

Bloomberg’s team declined to comment.

On September 11, 2001, hijackers seized control of two planes that struck the two World Trade Center towers. A third hijacked jet smashed into the Pentagon, and a fourth, which seemed to be headed for the Capitol or the White House, crashed in woodland near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers fought back and seized control.

Flashback: Trump Interviewed On September 11, 2001, Tours Damage 2 Days Later
Posted By Ian Schwartz On Date September 11, 2017

Donald Trump Calls Into WWOR/UPN 9 News on 9/11
Donald Trump said that from his office he witnessed a jetliner crashing into the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001. He spoke to WWOR/UPN 9 News via phone to describe what he saw.

Trump talked about the building structure, what should be the future of the WTC land plot and what, as president, he would do in response. Trump considered running for president in 1999.

“This country is different today and it’s going to be different than it ever was for many years to come,” Trump said.

Trump toured the damage two days after the terror attack: Donald Trump interview 2 days after 9/11 at ground zero
“I cannot believe the sight of Lower Manhattan without the World Trade Center and therefore we have to rebuild. Not necessarily in that form, but we have to rebuild at least as good and maybe better,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News on September 13, 2001.

Inside the 29 minutes that captured 9/11: CBS News cameraman reflects on what he saw at Ground Zero | Watch

Heartbreaking new 9/11 data reveals first responder cancer deaths now DOUBLE people killed in terror attacks

Newly-released 9/11 docs reveal officials ‘LIED to public about deadly toxins in air and hid truth for 25 years’

‘This was a war:’ How 9/11 changed George W Bush’s presidency and legacy

How I Survived 9 11 | I worked on the 44th floor Law Firm when the plane Hit

Stairway To Heaven by Dolly Parton with lyrics and visualization

She wanted the public to hear her mom’s final 9/11 transmission

911 @5 years later – Search || 911 25 years later – Search

What an NYPD helicopter pilot saw on 9/11

9/11 + 25: Return to Ground Zero – YouTube

1925 portrait of 18 year old Maria Branyas. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

What Scientists Found Inside a 117-Year-Old Woman Reveals New Clues to Long Life

The findings, published in Cell Reports Medicine, suggest that extreme longevity arises from the interplay between genetic and environmental factors, offering insights into the mechanisms of healthy aging.

..

Born in 1907, M116 was the world’s oldest verified living person until her death in 2024 at 117 years and 168 days. An analysis of M116’s biology now reveals that her record-breaking longevity was due to a combination of protective genetics, a healthy gut microbiota, efficient metabolism, and low inflammation. 

“In Catalonia, the historic nation where M116 lived, the life expectancy for women is 86 years, so she exceeded the average by more than 30 years,” the authors say. Though more people now live past 100, reaching beyond 110 is still extremely rare, and scientists don’t know why people such as M116 achieve such extraordinary longevity.

To uncover some clues, Eloy Santos-Pujol at the Central University of Catalonia in Barcelona, Spain, and his colleagues examined M116’s blood, DNA, metabolism, immune system, microbiota, and epigenetic marks—chemical tags on the DNA that regulate gene expression.

Protective biology

M116’s chromosomes looked normal but her telomeres—the protective caps on DNA that shorten with age—were unusually short. Her genome contained some rare genetic variants that might explain her longevity. These were linked to healthy immune responses, heart function and brain protection.

M116’s mitochondria—the cell’s powerhouses—worked better than those in younger women, and her immune system showed unique characteristics that promoted low inflammation levels. She also had one of the healthiest cholesterol profiles ever recorded, the researchers found.

Although she had some of the typical age-related changes, her cells showed protective epigenetic marks at certain DNA regions, which may have helped prevent disease.

113-year-old coronavirus survivor: ‘The elderly are the forgotten ones of society’ | Coronavirus | The Guardian

Extreme longevity

M116’s microbiota was unusually diverse and rich in Bifidobacterium—a beneficial gut microbe that usually declines with age. Bifidobacterium has been shown to help fight inflammation and support healthy fats. At the same time, she had few harmful bacteria linked to frailty and inflammation.

The abundance of Bifidobacterium may explain M116’s excellent cholesterol profile and low inflammation levels, the researchers say. Her healthy microbiota, they add, may have been boosted by a Mediterranean diet and daily yogurt, which encourage Bifidobacterium to grow. 

“The picture that emerges from our study, although derived only from this one exceptional individual, shows that extremely advanced age and poor health are not intrinsically linked and that both processes can be distinguished and dissected at the molecular level.”

What is already known

Born in 1907, M116 was the world’s oldest verified living person until her death in 2024 at 117 years and 168 days. Though more people now live past 100, reaching beyond 110 is still extremely rare, and scientists don’t know why people such as M116 achieve such extraordinary longevity.

What this research adds

Researchers examined M116’s blood, DNA, metabolism, immune system, microbiota, and epigenetics. They found protective genetic variants, strong mitochondrial and immune function, efficient cholesterol and fat metabolism, and very low inflammation. Her gut microbiota was unusually diverse and rich in Bifidobacterium—a beneficial gut microbe that usually declines with age. 

Conclusions

The findings indicate that M116 long life came from a combination of protective genetics, a healthy gut microbiota, efficient metabolism, and low inflammation. They also suggest that extreme longevity arises from the interplay between genetic and environmental factors, offering insights into the mechanisms of healthy aging.

BONUS: I’ve Had 2 Near-Death Experiences. Here’s What I Saw When I Died.

A remarkable new study of the world’s oldest verified living person reveals a surprising picture of extreme longevity.

Maria Branyas Morera was an American-born Spanish supercentenarian and the world’s oldest verified living person from January 17, 2023, until her death on August 19, 2024, at 117 years and 168 days.

Born in San Francisco on Mar 4. 1907 to Catalan parents, she moved to Spain in 1915, became a nurse during the Spanish Civil War, and had three children. She recovered from COVID-19 at 113, was the oldest Spaniard ever, and was studied for her exceptional health, strong immunity, and youthful microbiome. 

Maria Branyas lived through two world wars, the 1918 flu pandemic, the Spanish Civil War, and COVID-19. When she died in 2024 at age 117 years and 168 days, she was the oldest verified living person in the world. Now, scientists have examined her biology in unusual detail, and the results suggest that extreme aging and poor health are not always inseparable.

A team led by Dr. Manel Esteller, head of the Cancer Epigenetics Group at the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute, has published the final peer-reviewed results from what researchers describe as the most comprehensive study ever performed on a supercentenarian. Using minimally invasive samples from blood, saliva, urine, and stool, the team analyzed Branyas’s genome, proteome, epigenome, metabolome, transcriptome, and microbiome.

The study, published in Cell Reports Medicine, was coordinated by Esteller and led by Eloy Santos. Its key finding is not that Branyas avoided aging. Instead, her biology showed two opposing patterns at once. As Esteller put it, she displayed a “fascinating duality: the simultaneous presence of signals of extreme aging and of healthy longevity.”

Clear Signs of Advanced Aging

The signs of advanced age were unmistakable. Branyas had very short telomeres (the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes), an immune system with pro-inflammatory features, an aged population of B lymphocytes, and clonal hematopoiesis, an age-related condition in which blood stem cells acquire mutations. These changes are often associated with higher risks of leukemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, cardiovascular disease, and other serious conditions. New research links social behavior shifts to health and work

Maria Branyas, the longest-lived person ever recorded, together with Dr Manel Esteller, from the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute Credit: Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute

Yet Branyas did not develop cancer, dementia, or major cardiovascular disease. That contrast may be the study’s most important message: aging and disease can sometimes be separated at the molecular level.

Protective Biological Features

Alongside the markers of aging, Branyas exhibited several traits associated with resilience and healthy longevity.

The researchers found rare genetic variants linked to immune fitness, brain health, heart protection, and mitochondrial function. Her blood profile suggested unusually efficient lipid metabolism, with very low VLDL cholesterol and triglycerides and high HDL cholesterol, often called “good” cholesterol. She also had exceptionally low inflammation, a key factor because chronic inflammation is widely viewed as a driver of age-related disease.

Branyas’s gut microbiome also stood out.

Branyas had high levels of beneficial Bifidobacterium, bacteria associated with anti-inflammatory effects and healthy metabolism. This is notable because these bacteria usually decline with age, although they have also been found at higher levels in some centenarians and supercentenarians.

The researchers noted that Branyas ate about three yogurts per day during the last 20 years of her life, a habit that may have helped support her gut microbiome, although the study cannot prove cause and effect.

Younger Than Expected at the Molecular Level

Perhaps the most surprising result came from her epigenome, the chemical layer that helps regulate gene activity. Epigenetic clocks use DNA methylation patterns to estimate biological age, which can differ from chronological age. Across multiple tissues and several clock methods, Branyas’s biological age appeared younger than her actual age. One analysis found a gap of more than 23 years.

As the authors write, the findings suggest that one reason she reached such an extreme age was that her cells “felt” or “behaved” as younger cells.

Scientists Studied the World’s Oldest Person (117)… Here’s What They Found

Youthful traits identified in Maria Branyas. Credit: Santos-Pujol et al., Cell Reports, 2025

The researchers caution that one person’s biology cannot provide a universal formula for living past 110. Extreme longevity likely depends on a rare mix of genetics, lifestyle, environment, and chance.

Still, Branyas provides an unusually clear example of a body that carried the marks of extreme aging while avoiding many of aging’s most damaging consequences. The authors conclude: “These findings provide a fresh look at human aging biology, suggesting biomarkers for healthy aging, and potential strategies to increase life expectancy.”

Reference: “The multi omics blueprint of the individual with the most extreme lifespan” – Search Videos by Eloy Santos-Pujol, Aleix Noguera-Castells, Marta Casado-Pelaez, Carlos A. García-Prieto, Claudia Vasallo, Ignacio Campillo-Marcos, Carlos Quero-Dotor, Eva Crespo-García, Alberto Bueno-Costa, Fernando Setién, Gerardo Ferrer, Veronica Davalos, Elisabetta Mereu, Raquel Pluvinet, Carles Arribas, Carolina de la Torre, Francisco Villavicencio, Lauro Sumoy, Isabel Granada, Natalie S. Coles, Pamela Acha, Francesc Solé, Mar Mallo, Caterina Mata, Sara Peregrina, Toni Gabaldón, Marc Llirós, Meritxell Pujolassos, Robert Carreras-Torres, Aleix Lluansí, Librado Jesús García-Gil, Xavier Aldeguer, Sara Samino, Pol Torné, Josep Ribalta, Montse Guardiola, Núria Amigó, Oscar Yanes, Paula Martínez, Raúl Sánchez-Vázquez, Maria A. Blasco, Jose Oviedo, Bernardo Lemos, Julia Rius-Bonet, Marta Torrubiano, Marta Massip-Salcedo, Kamal A. Khidir, Thong Huy Cao, Paulene A. Quinn, Donald J.L. Jones, Salvador Macip, Eva Brigos-Barril, Mauricio Moldes, Fabio Barteri, Gerard Muntané, Hafid Laayouni, Arcadi Navarro and Manel Esteller, 24 September 2025, Cell Reports Medicine.
DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2025.102368

Extreme old age does not necessarily mean being plagued by diseases, science deciphers the bodily mechanisms of a 117-year-old’s “defying aging” | Gerontology Research Group

What Scientists Found Inside a 117-Year-Old Woman Reveals New Clues to Long Life

Doctors investigate DNA of 117-year-old woman to find one food that can unlock longer lives

Gut microbiota linked to healthy longevity in the world’s oldest woman  | MicrobiomePost

Scientists reveal the key to longevity in the world’s oldest woman, María Branyas

The oldest woman (117) had high cholesterol — here’s what that really means

DNA Study of 117-Year-Old Woman Reveals Clues to a Long Life

A dementia-affected brain shows significant shrinkage, widened grooves, and abnormal protein deposits, while a normal brain maintains its structure and connectivity despite minor age-related changes.

Structural Differences

A brain affected by dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease, undergoes widespread atrophy, particularly in the hippocampus, which is critical for memory formation, and in the cortical regions responsible for higher cognitive functions Medical News Today+2.

MRI scans reveal larger sulci (grooves), expanded ventricles, and reduced overall brain volume compared to a healthy brain optoceutics.com.

In contrast, a normal aging brain experiences modest volume loss, mainly in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, but the overall architecture remains intact, and neurons largely stay connected neurolaunch.com+1.

Chemical and Cellular Changes

Dementia brains accumulate amyloid plaques and tau tangles, which disrupt neuron function and communication U.S. News & World Report+1.

These abnormal protein deposits are largely absent in healthy brains, although minor amounts may appear with age U.S. News & World Report.

Neuronal death in dementia leads to loss of synaptic connections, impairing memory, reasoning, and language, whereas normal aging slows processing but preserves most neural networks neurolaunch.com.

Functional Impacts

The structural and chemical changes in dementia result in memory loss, impaired reasoning, language difficulties, personality changes, and loss of daily functioning neurolaunch.com+1.

In normal aging, cognitive decline is milder, with slower recall or occasional word-finding difficulties, but daily routines and self-care remain manageable neurolaunch.com+1.

Imaging Insights

Brain scans, particularly MRI, can distinguish dementia from normal aging. Dementia scans show hippocampal atrophy, cortical thinning, enlarged ventricles, and abnormal white matter, while healthy brains maintain well-defined structures and cortical folds optoceutics.com.

These imaging differences help clinicians identify the type and stage of dementia and differentiate it from normal age-related changes optoceutics.com.

Summary

In essence, dementia fundamentally alters brain structure and function, causing shrinkage, protein accumulation, and neuron loss, leading to cognitive and behavioral impairments.

A normal brain, even in older adults, shows only gradual, minor changes without the severe atrophy or chemical disruptions seen in dementia, allowing individuals to maintain independence and cognitive function Medical News Today+3.

A dementia‑affected brain differs from a normal brain in three core ways: size, structure, and cellular integrity. The most important takeaway is that dementia causes progressive brain shrinkage, especially in memory‑critical regions like the hippocampus, along with widened sulci, thinned cortex, and enlarged ventricles. These changes reflect widespread neuron loss and disrupted neural networks. Dementia Brain Visual Atlas – Search Videos  

 Structural Differences: Normal vs. Dementia Brain

• Cortical thickness — A normal brain has a dense, folded cortex; dementia causes thinning and flattening as neurons die.
• Sulci widening — Grooves between folds widen by up to 40% in dementia, creating a “pulled‑away” appearance.
• Ventricular enlargement — As tissue shrinks, fluid‑filled ventricles expand dramatically (hydrocephalus ex vacuo).
• Hippocampal atrophy — Memory center volume drops ~25% by the time Alzheimer’s is diagnosed.
• Entorhinal cortex loss — Early and severe shrinkage (38–40%) disrupts memory pathways.

 Cellular & Molecular Differences

• 

• Amyloid plaques — Clumps of beta‑amyloid accumulate between neurons, blocking communication.
• Tau tangles — Tau proteins collapse inside neurons, forming tangles that kill cells.
• Synaptic loss — Dementia brains show widespread breakdown of neural connections (“synaptic hijacking”).
• Inflammation — More severe neuroinflammation than normal aging.

 Functional Differences

• Memory formation — Early hippocampal damage disrupts new memory encoding.
• Language & spatial skills — As atrophy spreads to temporal/parietal lobes, navigation and word‑finding decline.
• Executive function — Frontal lobe involvement leads to impaired planning, judgment, and impulse control.

 Comparison Table: Normal Brain vs. Dementia Brain

Feature	Normal Brain	Dementia Brain
Overall size	Full volume	Significant shrinkage
Cortical thickness	Robust	Thinned, flattened
Sulci	Narrow	Widened up to 40%
Ventricles	Small	Enlarged (“hollowed‑out” appearance)
Hippocampus	Maintained	~25% volume loss by diagnosis
Cellular health	Stable neurons	Plaques, tangles, inflammation
Network connectivity	Dense, efficient	Severe synaptic loss

 If you want to go deeper

Would you like a comparison of dementia types, a stage‑by‑stage brain change map, or a mythic‑symbolic interpretation of brain decline aligned with your narrative‑analysis style?

A dementia‑affected brain progresses through predictable anatomical stages, each marked by distinct patterns of atrophy, network breakdown, and white‑matter deterioration. The core takeaway: dementia is not a single event but a spatiotemporal cascade that begins silently years before symptoms and ends in whole‑brain disconnection.

Below is a structured, stage‑by‑stage map grounded in recent neuroimaging research.

 Stage 1 — Preclinical Phase (10–20 years before symptoms)

Key change: Microscopic pathology begins without noticeable cognitive decline.

• Amyloid accumulation starts in neocortex.
• Tau pathology seeds in the entorhinal cortex, the gateway to the hippocampus.
• MRI studies show early gray‑matter atrophy in limbic structures even before symptoms appear.
• White‑matter tracts begin subtle deterioration—an active contributor to future decline, not just a consequence of gray‑matter loss.

Functional impact: None noticeable; brain compensates.

 Stage 2 — Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD)

Key change: The person senses decline, but tests appear normal.

• Structural imaging shows limbic atrophy and early thinning in frontal/temporal gyri.
• Hippocampal‑cortical networks begin measurable weakening.
• White‑matter loss becomes more detectable, especially in tracts connecting memory circuits.

Functional impact: Subtle memory lapses, reduced cognitive stamina.

 Stage 3 — Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)

Key change: Structural decline becomes clinically measurable.

• Hippocampal volume loss accelerates, often measurable year‑to‑year.
• Cortical thinning appears in temporal and parietal regions—areas essential for language and spatial reasoning.
• White‑matter degeneration expands beyond limbic tracts, predicting conversion to dementia.

Functional impact: Noticeable memory impairment; preserved independence.

 Stage 4 — Early Dementia

Key change: Widespread network failure.

• Significant hippocampal shrinkage and entorhinal cortex loss disrupt memory encoding.
• Cortical thinning spreads to frontal lobes, impairing planning and judgment.
• MRI shows ventricular enlargement due to tissue loss.
• White‑matter tracts show marked microstructural damage, contributing to slowed thinking.

Functional impact: Difficulty with complex tasks, navigation, word‑finding.

 Stage 5 — Moderate Dementia

Key change: Multi‑region collapse.

• Atrophy extends across temporal, parietal, and frontal cortices.
• Posterior cortical regions (visual‑spatial processing) show pronounced thinning.
• White‑matter degeneration becomes global, severely disrupting communication between brain regions.

Functional impact: Loss of independence, behavioral changes, confusion.

 Stage 6 — Severe Dementia

Key change: Whole‑brain atrophy.

• Extensive cortical loss creates a “hollowed‑out” appearance.
• Hippocampus is profoundly shrunken; memory formation is nearly absent.
• White‑matter tracts show near‑complete breakdown.
• Metabolic imaging reveals dramatic reductions in brain activity across all lobes.

Functional impact: Loss of speech, mobility, and recognition; full‑time care required.

 Summary Table — Anatomical Progression Across Stages

Stage	Primary Brain Change	Key Regions	Functional Impact
Preclinical	Silent pathology	Entorhinal cortex, neocortex	No symptoms
SCD	Early limbic atrophy	Limbic system, frontal/temporal gyri	Subtle self‑noticed decline
MCI	Accelerated hippocampal/cortical loss	Hippocampus, temporal/parietal cortex	Mild impairment
Early Dementia	Network failure	Frontal, temporal, parietal	Daily‑task difficulty
Moderate Dementia	Multi‑region collapse	Temporal/parietal/frontal	Loss of independence
Severe Dementia	Global atrophy	Whole brain	Full‑care dependence

Would you like the next layer?

I can build:

• A mythic‑symbolic interpretation of these stages (aligned with your archetypal analysis style)
• A caregiver‑focused guide mapping symptoms to brain regions
• A visual atlas with annotated MRI examples

Which direction do you want to explore?

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