I didn't even know I was on the plaza level, that's how 
confused-that's-it's-it's just-space meant nothing. And so we all started 
yelling, "where do we go, where do we go?" And this man appeared and he said, 
"Over this way." And he was on the outside of-of what turned out to be the 
plaza level. And where we came out, if you're familiar with One World Trade, 
um, there were-there were you know doors on, where the escalator was, you know 
exactly what that space was, well there was a whole other world that happened 
on the other side of the building, that was looking towards Five and Six. And 
that's where we came out. And so he's-he directed us on to the plaza and, I 
remember distinctly, and I kept, when I realized it was the plaza I was like 
'this doesn't make sense, there should be more people here,' meaning rescue 
workers, you know, people guiding and-and then this guy said, "have you seen 
any victims?" So in my head I'm still thinking, 'you mean from like two hours, 
an hour and a half ago?' It just didn't make any sense cause I didn't know 
what-what had just happened. And he-his ad-his advice, this guy, he was in 
street clothes, so whether he was an undercover cop or, you know, he was World 
Trade Center, I-I have no idea, but he said, "Stay, go across. Stay under the 
eaves of the buildings, there's still debris coming down."  And so we 
literally walked over the remains of Two World Trade. The building imploded 
and it was just, and one of the images that is very vivid in my head and-and I 
presume it's accurate but, there was a green file folder that was stuck in 
this rubble of everything else that was just remarkably gray and that was such 
a vivid, um, the contrast of that was-was vivid and it's funny what 
you-you-you kind of focus on, but we walked across to, I guess it's Five, 
or-or the Customs House, where the Customs was, wherever-that's Six. Yeah, 
Five is where the-the, ah, the-the children's, whatever-what do you call it, 
the daycare center, was. And Kayla was supposed to meet-her understanding was 
she was supposed to meet people at the command center at Seven World Trade. 
And when we, I looked at the front of Seven World Trade, it looked worse than 
Five and Six. And I'm like, "You're not going in there." I mean it 
literal-literally; the front of it was blown out. I'm like "you can't go in 
there." I did try to, I-I had to look at the fountain because the fountain was 
my fountain. I couldn't even find it. I couldn't even locate it in this, I 
didn't know where it was, I mean, you-you-I didn't like what I saw. It just 
was, you know images from Time Magazine, you know, that are always somewhere 
else, never something that you're going to be in the midst of. I did also have 
a tremendous amount of comfort when I got to Five World Trade and the day care 
center was on the plaza level, and what was remarkable, in the midst of all of 
this devastation, the windows to the day care center weren't even cracked. And 
so, you know, you just had some comfort that the kids were ok, and nothing 
happened to them. Um, we wound up going, ah, there was an, a sss-an elev-an 
elev-an escalator staircase near Vessey Street and we wound up going down that 
way. We actually, on the plaza level, saw, ran into other people from the Port 
Authority and there was one man who was standing at the top of the stairs just 
covered, covered in dust and he started clutching his chest and I-I smacked 
him on the back and just said "Sir, you didn't get this far to do this, so 
just, you got to get your act together and just keep going." You know.  And 
actually, a-a policeman who was on his way up to-stopped him and stopped to 
help him which probably saved the policeman's life.  But we wound up going 
down that staircase, um, crossing over to Vessey and then Kayla, at some point 
when we were outside on the plaza had told me that-that my husband had sent an 
email and his email was, "Are you still together?  Are you out of the 
building?  Are you ok?" And Kayla replied, "Yes".  And the yes was "Are you 
still together."  So my husband thought I was out of the building.  But as it 
turned out, we, he and I, he knew I was ok, or, you know, but Charlie's wife 
didn't know he was ok, so I used her Blackberry one more time when we got to 
the street, to Vessey Street and it was at, 7 minutes before the building came 
down, and I sent an email saying, with Charlie's phone number and said, "Call 
Marilyn and tell her-tell her Charlie's ok. We're out of the building." And 
we-we went up, but it still didn't make sense to me.  This whole thing didn't 
make sense because, why weren't there more just emergency professionals? Why 
weren't there, cause the nearest person, other than the cop that helped 
us-stopped to help the man who was having heart problems, the nearest one was 
a, ah, policewoman who was at the corner of Vessey and Church just waving us 
up, not getting any cl-and it just, I'm like I just did-I just couldn't 
understand this. It just wasn't-that part was not computing, it was kind of 
annoying me. Um...

	No. I-no, no. I think most of your senses just go dull. I swear. But when 
I got to the-to the corner, um, Charlie had said...and Church, turned around 
and-and a-another vivid image that I have is the fire and the top of the 
building on fire against what was probably one of the most brilliant skies 
I've ever seen in my life. And-and other than what it meant, it was-it was 
really a striking photo, um, and yet when I have it in my head, it didn't 
register that there was only one tower.  It didn't, I mean I still see it 
today and I remember seeing that and it just never dawned on me that the other 
tower wasn't there. But yet, yet I intellectually knew it, even if I wasn't 
ac-accepting it, because when we heard the rumble, we knew exactly what it was 
and we just ran because we knew what it was this time. And-and so I did know 
what it was, I just wasn't-I wasn't willing to accept it right then.  But 
ironically we ran into, um, because I stopped the police officer and I said, 
"Well are the-the subways running?" And she said, "No just go uptown, go 
uptown." That's-that's all they were saying. Um, I mean, I think, they were 
probably frustrated with us, but, you know, they didn't understand that we 
didn't have a lot of information at that moment. 

	Yeah, We're on Church. You know, we're just about a block away at that 
point. Um, we wound up, we just ran, we ran until, Charlie and I stayed 
together, and we ran until you-you just couldn't run anymore. I don't-couldn't 
even tell you how many blocks. At that point we lost the rest of the folks 
from-from the P.A.  No. Nah. I had no interest in looking back and I could not 
understand whatsoever, the people that were heading towards it. I could not 
understand that. It was very iron-it-it was ironic. There was a-a ve-there was 
an image, there was an outdoor cafˇ, and there were people sitting there 
having, you know, whatever. And then you had all these folks that were heading 
towards it. And then I will never forget this, there was a guy who was a 
member of one of the BIDs, and I-it was probably a Tribeca BID because it was 
north of the Trade Center, and he was picking up garbage, you know, the 
lit-the street, and I thought "Oh, you know, we're going to need a lot more 
than that." But, you know, he did not, that was his job, and he was doing his 
job. And, I'm like, God bless you.  You know, they, you can-he was picking up 
the little litter on the street and that was his job, and, um, but, ah, it-it 
was-it was an interesting trip up north. Ah, cause you don't know, you know, 
you just don't know what to do.  You don't know where to go. All you want to 
do is to be home. That's what you want more than anything else in the world is 
just to be home. And Charlie lived in New Jersey and so we were going to 
walk-walk towards the Port Authority bus terminal. And I figured he could get 
a bus, I'll go cross-town and I'll get Metro North. 

	I'm heading up Church so I got none of that. Um, you know, we-we were-we 
got covered in stuff because we got wet and got, from the-the staircase, 
cover-plus with the composed-the concrete, but, no, we did not have the-the 
cloud of smoke, that was not, you know we were wor-more worried about how it 
fell. We didn't realize it fell like a pancake. That it fell, if it fell this 
way [she does a visual with her hands] or whatever. You know, you don't kind 
of think about that, you just want to be away from it. Um, I remember very 
vividly wondering why it was that the Starbucks was closed. There was a 
handmade sign that said, ah, "Closed due to the WTC incident." And I-I just 
couldn't understand why Starbucks was closed, you know. It just, you know, I 
had no context for what was going on, despite the fact that Kayla told me 
about Two World Trade, and the Pentagon, it just, all I knew was we were under 
attack. I didn't know why, and I just wanted to be home. And-and I-you-you 
don't realize at this-at that point you just think it's really just affecting 
you.  Not that it-this is a...a-an incident that's affecting the entire world 
as it turned out. Um, I wanted to go to-to-I didn't want, I needed to go to 
the bathroom. And I-I wanted more than anything, I remember, I just wanted 
water, and I didn't even want water to drink, I wanted water to-to clear up 
my-my throat because of the-the junk and there was a-a man on the street, and 
I just walked, who had a sports bottle and I'm like, "I need that." [Laughing] 
And I-I just took it and I just literally just rinsed my mouth out and I gave 
it back to him. But-but, ah, he was somewhat startled but I was like "I-I just 
need that right now." Um, we fo-we ultimately found, ah, well I remember too, 
very vividly walking through Washington Square Park and there were people that 
were huddled around like boom boxes and just, you know, you-you're hearing 
these reports and you just, you just don't even want to hear it. You just-you 
just want to get away. But we-we eventually, um, I had spotted a sign for a 
dermatologist and in my very, you know, my recollection it was very clear, it 
was this bright blue awning and it said Dermatologist. And there was a light 
on. And I figured they've got a bathroom; they have a telephone; I'm not 
competing with anybody for anything. I told Charlie, "We're going in there." 
And he's-Charlie's not one to just impose himself on someone. I'm like, "We're 
going in there, just be quite." So I rang the-the bell, the buzzer and I just 
said, "Look, we just came from the Trade Center. We need some help." And they 
let us in and we used the bathroom, washed your, you know, just to wash your 
face felt great.  Just to go to the bathroom felt great. And their, um, the 
only phone they had that was working was, ah, a fax machine and I called my 
husband's office just to say, "Listen, when you talk to Neil tell him I'm ok, 
I'm heading back home. I'm going to Grand Central." And the guy at-from his 
office said, "Patty nothing's, there ain't nothin' you ain't goin' anywhere, 
you're coming here." And so his-his office is on 24th Street between, um, Park 
and Third.