Riverhead woman's high heels a symbol of surviving the horrors of 9/11

Soon after American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center, Florence Jones, now of Riverhead, knew she had to escape as she saw people leaping to their death from the floors above. 

Amid the unfolding chaos, Jones, along with 11 of her colleagues at Baseline Financial, which took up the south tower's 77th and 78th floors, headed toward a stairwell for the long descent out of the still-untouched high-rise when United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the south tower, directly above her.

As they continued a frantic effort to take the stairs to safety, Jones struggled in her high heels until her boss, Carl Boudakian, offered to carry them. 

The group was able make it out safely, but Jones didn’t see her shoes again until days later, when Boudakian mailed them back, covered in debris and soaked in jet fuel. She put them away in her basement until a decade later, when she donated them to the 9/11 Memorial Museum.

Symbols of survival

Reflecting on the attacks 24 years later at her home in Riverhead, Jones, 64, said she realizes the shoes symbolize her survival.

"Somebody who actually made it out — because there's a lot of shoes there of people who didn't survive," Jones said. "This is somebody who made it her business not to die in that building. It was like, I’m not dying in there. I’ll die on the street, I’ll die later, but I’m not dying in here."

Jones described a perfect fall day as she rode the LIRR into Manhattan from Quogue, getting off the subway early and walking in her Kenneth Cole wedge heel shoes, stopping at a farmers market and getting bagels for the office.

She chatted with co-workers while others shared vacation photos, before they heard the explosion at 8:46 a.m. from Flight 11 crashing into the north tower. While the office frantically made calls searching for answers, Jones said she looked out the window and saw people jumping from the higher floors after the plane cut off access to the stairs.

At 9:03 a.m., when Flight 175 crashed into the 78th floor of the south tower, known as the sky lobby and filled with people waiting to board express elevators, Jones was among a dozen colleagues on the floor below.

Jones said she was standing in a doorway when she saw the shadow of the jetliner approaching and explode into the building. She said the crash shattered glass into her eyes and her head hit the ceiling, resulting in a concussion.

Among the Baseline co-workers, a dozen got out of the building and four others died. The survivors included a seven-months pregnant woman who set the pace as they entered the stairway.

"We all went into survival mode. We banded together as a group," said Boudakian, Baseline’s director of client services at the time. "I had no idea it was a plane until we were out of there. We got out by the skin of our teeth."

'Keep moving'

After navigating about six flights of smoky stairs, Boudakian said he noticed Jones struggling and offered to carry her heels and purse as the group stopped to rest. She also tied up her dress to keep it from dragging through the fuel and a trail of blood leading down the stairs. They passed a few firefighters along the way. 

"I told her, ‘You have to keep moving. You can’t walk down 77 floors in heels,’" Boudakian said. "I remember in my head, it’s a lot of stairs to go down. I started counting the floor numbers, but it took a while and when we got out, we felt relief."

They exited into the ground level mall where the co-workers separated. Jones went into a Borders bookstore, Boudakian went to a deli for water and then walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, still holding her bag and shoes. Neither looked back at the burning towers.

Jones went to New York-Presbyterian Hospital where medics gave her oxygen and flushed her eyes. She left the hospital after the south tower collapsed and she walked 50 blocks in her stocking feet to a friend’s office in Chelsea.

"I knew my life would never be the same. I had no idea at that point how much it would change, but it did touch every aspect of my life in that way," Jones said. "It went from a really beautiful day to hell on earth and you didn't know which way really to run."

Jones said the trauma of that day left her emotionally scarred. Certain things, she added, — like the smell of jet fuel and traveling — bring back memories. She said therapy and telling her story is her way to cope.

She has reconnected with the grown son of a secretary, Jill Maurer Campbell. He was 10 months old when his mother was killed on the 78th floor.

 Jake Campbell, now 24, is a graduate student in New Hampshire. He has pieced together his mother's life through Jones and others who knew her as well as personal relics left behind.

"Going through something like this can be incredibly lonely at times. Not many people know truly how you feel," Campbell said. "Small details of a person's character come alive. The Baseline people and Florence have become invaluable in telling what she was like and seeing similar things in myself is a great comfort to me. She may not be here physically, but I lean on aspects of myself and the way I see things in life."

Making the most of life

Mary Fetchet, who lost her son in the attack and co-founded the group Voices of Sept. 11, said that for Jones and others who survived the attacks more than two decades ago, emotional recovery means never forgetting those who didn't.

Fetchet said her organization offers support and services for survivors and family members, including 140,000 people enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program. Demand increases as the anniversary approaches, she said.

"When you’re escaping for your life and the circumstances are very traumatic, you don’t know if you’re going to live or die," Fetchet said. "Anyone impacted by 9/11 has that conflict that you want to remember and honor the victims but forget the loss and the horror of that day."

Jones and Boudakian both said it’s difficult to relive what they went through and think about the people killed and the families left forever changed.

Boudakian, 63, of Marlton, New Jersey, often reflects on moments he would have missed had his fate been different on 9/11, like watching his son, who was only 4 years old when the towers fell, get married last week.

"Every day I remember everyone, and I think of the families. I live my life trying to make the most of my life," Boudakian said. "It would be a waste if I didn’t think of that and I’m so lucky to still be here and do the most for my family."