A woman who was visiting New York has shared an emotional Facebook post about how she was shown into to the 9/11 memorial at the site of the former World Trade Center towers by a man who survived the terrorist attacks of 11 September, despite being on the 47th floor of the North Tower.
Kylee Tinney and her husband were visiting the Big Apple recently and decided to take a trip to the 9/11 museum. Once there, they got talking to a dispatch worker who explained to them that his name was Thomas Canavan.
They asked Tom where he was on that fateful morning, and to their surprise he replied: "The 47th floor of the North Tower."
When the tower collapsed, Tom was forced to crawl through a huge amount of rubble to free himself. He was badly injured, and many of his friends were dead, but he was one of only a handful of people who survived.
He spoke of what it was really like to be in the towers on that day, and to prove it, told them to find his wristwatch in the museum. Sure enough, there it was, stopped at the exact moment that the towers collapsed.
After their meeting, Kylee wrote on Facebook: "We talked for 20 minutes as if no one else were around. I asked questions, and he gladly answered.
"One of the many things from that conversation that stuck out was that he said it's so deceiving on TV when all you see is one cloud of dust and a small hole from the plane.
"The reality you don't realise at home is that it was desks, file cabinets, chairs, staircases, elevators, and people falling down on him. The little holes in the Towers on TV from the planes were really six stories tall.
"The magnitude of this tragedy was so much more than most of us can imagine from our television screens. Something that's hard for us to comprehend."
That much is certainly true.
After their visit they found him again, and again Kylee spoke of her admiration for Tom and her amazement at what he endured.
She continued: "No one knew everything he had been through. I could only be thankful it was raining that day and I picked that particular awning to run under, or else I might have missed this happenstance and humbling conversation of fate.
"I can only hope he was equally as touched to share his story with us as we were to hear it.
"When we told him goodbye, I let him know that we would bring his story with us back to the South, which is why I felt compelled to share with you today."
She continued: "I may never see my friend Tom again, which makes me sad, but every September 11th I will fondly remember him and all of the other men and women who died and lived in the face of pure evil.
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"As always, I am proud to be an American."
Featured Image Credit: Facebook/Kylee TinneyTopics: 9/11, World Trade Center, US News, New York