25 years after Sept. 11, former preschool teacher honored by child she carried to safety
UPPER ST. CLAIR, Pa. —
Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, Lynn Boris, a former preschool teacher in Lower Manhattan, is being recognized for her heroic actions that day with a memorial cobblestone at the 9/11 Memorial, dedicated by the family of the child she carried to safety.
“In honor of Lynn Boris, forever grateful to our hero,” the cobblestone reads.
Boris received a replica of the cobblestone at her Upper St. Clair home, a gift from Erica’s family.
“Your cobblestone is more than a tribute. It’s a permanent reminder of the resilience, unity, and service that defined our collective response to September 11, 2001,” the family said.
Reflecting on the recognition, Boris said, “It’s hard not to feel incredibly humbled by it.”
On Sept. 11, 2001, Boris, a Long Island native, was teaching at Trinity Preschool, part of the historic Trinity Church, located just a short walk from the World Trade Center.
She heard the first plane hit the North Tower but didn’t know what had happened. When the second plane struck, she began receiving calls from concerned parents.
“I had called a few people to find out what was going on, and I also was receiving phone calls, parents saying, ‘I’m going to be late,’ or, ‘Something’s happening at the World Trade Center.’ And I had said, ‘OK, well, we’re safe. Everything is OK. We’re good.’ Until we weren’t,” Boris said.
Parents rushed to the preschool to pick up their children, but Erica, not yet two years old, remained. Suddenly, the preschool building shook, and smoke began pushing into the basement where teachers, children, and parents had taken shelter.
“Just a lot of shaking and rumbling and smoke coming through. Even in the basement, smoke was coming through. We had baby wipes that we were putting over children, over ourselves,” Boris said.
When everyone was directed outside, Boris picked up Erica and stepped into a city transformed by devastation.
“It was like utter devastation,” Boris said. “There’s all smoke. I mean, like, foot thick with dust, debris. I had never seen anything like it. Things were still flying out — debris flying out, mostly paperwork. And you just really couldn’t see anything. It was really dark.”
Boris and the other teachers hurried away from the danger, staying together as Lower Manhattan disappeared beneath a cloud of ash and debris. She carried Erica far from the destruction.
“You’re thinking of, just keep going. Just keep going. I had to be aware of who I was around, too, because I needed to make sure we were all still together,” Boris said.
Erica fell asleep on Boris’s shoulder, and worried that the dust or trauma had hurt her, Boris used the little water she had to keep Erica awake.
“I don’t know what possessed me to not let her sleep, but I didn’t want her to sleep. I wanted her to stay awake,” Boris said.
Eventually, Boris and Erica were reunited with Erica’s mother, Debra. Today, Erica, now grown and living in New York City, still calls Boris her family’s hero.
Two years ago, Boris visited Lower Manhattan for the first time since the attacks, bringing her sons, Nicholas and Ryan, to Trinity Church and the reflecting pools where the towers once stood.
“It was the first place I wanted to take them, but I was really scared because I hadn’t been down there. I hadn’t seen the pools. It’s just really, really difficult to go down there,” Boris said.
For Ryan, standing at the site made his mother’s story — and the enormity of that day — real.
“It makes me feel lucky to have my mom as my mom,” Ryan said.
He saw the sorrow reflected in the pools but also the courage of the people who ran toward danger and the ordinary people who stopped to help others.
“I hope they don’t forget that compassion comes first, and that this is a good example of it,” Ryan said.
Boris remembers the terror but also the unity that followed.
“The hope and the unity — the community together,” Boris said. “There was hope in the horror that day.”
She believes part of healing is remembering and reflecting on that day while moving forward with grace and dignity.
“Part of the healing, I think, is always remembering and then reflecting on that day, and then knowing that you move forward with grace, you move forward with dignity and keep living because that’s what it’s all about. And never forget,” Boris said.
Boris believes divine intervention guided her and Erica through the smoke.
“I see it as God watching over. That’s what I see it as. I see it as divine intervention,” Boris said.
For Boris, time has brought healing, but the memories remain vivid.
“Twenty-five years goes by very fast. But the second you think about that day, if you really allow yourself to think about that day, it still feels like yesterday,” Boris said.
Her hope for the next generation is simple: “My hope is nobody ever forgets.”