On September 11, 2001, Josephine Harris was a 59-year-old bookkeeper for the Port Authority, working on the 73rd floor of the North Tower. She’d been hit by a car a few months earlier and was still getting around on a leg brace.
After American Airlines Flight 11 hit the tower at 8:46 a.m., she made it more than 50 floors down on her own before her legs gave out.
They started calling her their ‘guardian angel’ and meant it literally.
Ladder Company 6, led by Captain Jay Jonas, had gone up to help with the evacuation. At 9:59 a.m., the South Tower collapsed, and Jonas ordered his men back down. Around the 19th floor, they found Harris — barely able to stand. Instead of continuing past her, they
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