September 11th 2023.
For years after the 9/11 terrorist attack, Marcy Borders was known as the "Dust Lady," the Black legal assistant whose debris-filled photo gained worldwide attention. Marcy tragically passed away in August 2015 at the age of 42, one year after being diagnosed with stomach cancer. She was certain her cancer was caused by the toxic dust she was exposed to when the World Trade Center collapsed.
"I'm asking myself, 'did this thing ignite cancer cells in me?'" she commented to the Jersey Journal. "I haven't had any illnesses before then; no high blood pressure, no diabetes. How do you go from being healthy to waking up the next day with cancer?"
At the time of the disaster, Marcy was a 28-year-old from Paterson, New Jersey, working for Bank of America at its branch in the World Trade Center North Tower. She amazingly survived the collapse, and photographer Stan Honda captured an image of her body covered in debris, which became an iconic representation of the horrors of that day.
Soon after, Marcy earned the name of the "Dust Lady," which never left her. "She didn't let the 'Dust Lady' thing define her," her brother Michael Borders said to The Guardian in 2015. "She was still Marcy to everybody else - she just happened to be involved in something tragic."
The cancer was only the beginning of the aftermath of 9/11 on Marcy. She fought with depression and addiction for 10 years after the attack. "It was like my soul was knocked down with those towers," Marcy explained to the NY Post in 2011. "My life spiraled out of control. I didn't do a day's work in nearly 10 years, and by 2011 I was a complete mess. Every time I saw an aircraft, I panicked. If I saw a man on a building, I was convinced he was going to shoot me."
But it was her loss of custody of her two children and checking into rehab for a crack addiction that ultimately gave Marcy the breaking point she needed to make a change. While in rehab, she learned Osama Bin Laden had been killed, giving her some "peace of mind," as she said.
Marcy tried not to look back at the "dust lady" photo, instead wanting to move away from her role as a victim. "I try to take myself from being a victim to a survivor now. I don't want to be a victim anymore," she said.
Though 9/11 is credited with taking 3,000 lives on the day of the attack, many believe victims like Marcy Borders are part of a much larger death toll that continues to grow decades later.
"As we mark 20 years since that fateful day in 2001, we must remember that 9/11 isn't just in the past," Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney commented to The Independent in 2021. "It is something that these responders, survivors, and their families are living with each and every day as they deal with their cancers, respiratory conditions, and the numerous other physical and mental health conditions caused by 9/11."
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