My 9/11 letter to the woman who found me in the rubble

I was at the World Trade Center when it fell. I write about it every year on 9/11 .?This past year I decided to get in contact with people I haven't talked to since that day. Finally, I'm ready.

One of those people was A., the woman I was working with on 9/11. A. and I sat next to each other at the startup we worked for. I had no understanding of what we were selling. That really bothered A. and she tried to distance herself from me. I also had no understanding of where we were working, so every day when I went out for lunch, I'd get lost on the way back.

On 9/11, A. and I were the only two people who stopped working to go outside. A. did something really nice that day. She said, "I'll go with you. Otherwise you'll never find your way back to the office."

We stood next to each other. She decided there was a better place to stand. I trailed her. She pushed through the crowd to see and I followed. When the first Tower fell, she was gone. I didn’t see her again until we went back to the office four weeks later.

I recently googled her. It didn't take a lot. She's still in tech sales. I emailed her in less than a minute she emailed back. Then we got on the phone. I said, "I haven't seen you since that one week we were back in the office."

"Oh yeah. Then you were fired."

"I was fired? I thought we couldn't work there because it was toxic."

"Well, we probably shouldn't have worked there. But I did. You didn't work there because you were fired."

The conversation went on like that. I remembered why I hated the job.

Still, I kept looking for people I have never thanked. I always regretted not having any contact info for the woman on Wall St. who found me stunned, completely covered in debris, unable to move. Teresa. She walked with me for hours and hours to get to her Upper West Side apartment. She bought me a pair of shoes from a street vendor. She got into a very long line to get me water.

I think of Teresa each year. How kind she was. I don't think I said five words to her the entire day. But we spent the day together walking up all of Manhattan, and she would look at me and see what I needed. Over the years I think repeatedly, how could I not get any information about her? Not even a last name. She had Nino's contact info though. I think she never wanted to remember anything about that day again.

Not having a way to thank her directly means I can write a letter to all the Teresas. To all the people who found someone completely shocked and shattered the morning of 9/11:

Thank you for taking care. To hold your hand meant so much. I can still sense that moment when the person holding my hand felt steady like they knew where to go. Such an intensely human connection. And I'm happy that I can tell you -- whoever you are -- how much it meant on 9/11. Even if the person is not thanking you directly, they remember, and it's a nice memory to have.