Edna Cintrón, known as “the woman who waved and never lost hope,” is one of thousands of people being remembered on the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Cintron, 46, an administrative assistant at Marsh & McLennan, was trying to get help and was seen in the disturbing image, standing on the edge 93 stories up in the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
She was waving near a gaping hole after one of the planes, Flight 11, crashed into the building on that hellish day, surrounded by searing flames and clouds of black smoke.
Grisly footage revealed that many people trying to escape jumped from the towers before the devastating collapse.
At 10:28 a.m., the salutes ceased as the North Towers completely collapsed and Cintrón became one of the 2,996 who perished that day.
Cintrón’s iconic image is still shared, circulated and remembered.
Edna Cintron, 46, worked as an administrative assistant for Marsh & McLennan at the World Trade Center, Tower 1
The disturbing image of Cintrón waving her hand hoping someone would come to rescue her before the North Tower collapsed.
In the video posted by 9/11 Revisited, Cintron’s husband, William, explained the agonizing moments before his wife passed away.
According to the images, he “tentatively identified” his wife “as the woman who had been standing at the edge of the impact hole for twenty minutes waiting in the hope of being rescued.”
However, a man whose fiancée was also in the building said the woman waving, dressed in white pants and a black shirt, was not Edna Cintron but his fiancée, Karen Juday.
The man’s claim was based on the clothes his late fiancée had worn to work that day, according to 911 Revisited.
Other details of the chilling video show Cintrón along with two other people trying to survive.
An unidentified woman who recorded the video can be heard saying during the emotional call. “David might be trying to call me,” she said, crying. “I’ll call you later.”
In the background you can hear the shrill sounds of sirens, news reporters on the ground, and absolute chaos.
An obituary posted on Legacy.com spoke of Cintron’s “courage and fortitude.”
Her husband, William Cintron, shared how the couple was once homeless and how Cintron supported him during their twelve-year marriage as he battled alcoholism.
He said he stayed sober thanks to their love and support.
Al Qaeda hijackers crashed two planes into the Twin Towers
The huge hole seen in the image after a plane crashed into the North Towers of the World Trade Center
“She made sure she kept me in check,” he said. “She made sure I did what I was supposed to do. She was a very, very strong woman because she always stood her ground.”
He also admitted that Cintrón “was more like a mother” to him.
“She made sure I ate right and that no one manipulated me. She was also my backbone. She made me strong. She made me who I am today.”
And she also recalled how she made her East Elmhurt house a home.
“She would leave work, come home, cook, make sure that when I left work there was food on the table and everything,” he said.
‘And every night we ate ice cream and watched TV.’
On September 11, 2001, a hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center and exploded at 9:03 a.m. in an unprecedented assault.
The two planes were hijacked by terrorists led by Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and nearly 3,000 people perished in the collapse of the twin towers.
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