The Slowest Woman in Stairwell B: How Josephine Harris' Leg Brace Saved 14 Lives on 9/11

Josephine Harris was 59 years old and still recovering from a car accident when she showed up for work on the 73rd floor of the North Tower on September 11, 2001. She was wearing a leg brace. When the building was hit, she joined the evacuation like thousands of others, making it more than 50 floors down before her legs finally gave out near the 19th floor. That’s where Ladder Company 6 found her.

Captain Jay Jonas and his crew could have kept moving. Instead, they carried her, and when she couldn’t take another step, they stopped with her on the fourth floor. Twenty-nine minutes later, the North Tower collapsed. Stairwell B survived the fall, and all 14 people inside it, firefighters, a police officer, and Harris, walked out with no life-threatening injuries. They were the only survivors found in any North Tower stairwell that day.

Harris stayed close with the firefighters for the rest of her life and passed away in 2011. They called her their guardian angel, but she never saw it that way. She thought she was the one slowing everyone down. Twenty-five years later, her story is a reminder that the thing you think is holding you back might be exactly what’s keeping you safe. Have you ever had a delay that turned out to be a blessing in disguise? Tell us in the comments.