9/11’s ‘Dust Lady’ dies

This picture of Marcy Borders, taken just after the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed, was one of the more iconic images of Sept. 11, 2001.

This 11 September 2001 file photo shows Marcy Borders covered in dust as she takes refuge in an office building after one of the World Trade Center towers collapsed in New York. Borders was caught outside on the street as the cloud of smoke and dust enveloped the area. (Photo:  STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images)

She was a legal assistant for Bank of America on the 81st floor of 1 World Trade Center when the attack began. She ran down the stairwell to the street and just as the south tower fell, a stranger pulled her into the lobby of another building as the north tower started to go.

Borders, 42, died this week from the cancer she was diagnosed with a year ago.

After the attack, she fell into a decade long struggle with depression and substance abuse. She told a New Jersey newspaper last year she had $190,000 in medical bills, no insurance and no job.

“I try to take myself from being a victim to being a survivor now. I don’t want to be a victim anymore,” she said.