Genelle Guzman-McMillan And ‘Paul The Angel’
Genelle Guzman McMillanGenelle Guzman-Mcmillan at her wedding, which took place after her miraculous 9/11 rescue.
Like Ron DiFrancesco, Genelle Guzman-McMillan’s experience with third man syndrome happened during 9/11. But unlike DiFrancesco, her experience with the phenomenon did not happen in the towers — but under them.
On Sept. 11, 2001, Guzman-McMillan showed up to work on the 64th floor of the North Tower. But when the first plane hit, she hesitated before evacuating. Guzman-McMillan was a Trinidadian immigrant who had overstayed her visa, and worried that she’d get in trouble if she left her desk. As the situation grew more dire, however, Guzman-McMillan and another employee decided to flee the building.
They made it to the 13th floor. And then the North Tower collapsed.
Guzman-McMillan was trapped under the rubble for 27 hours, overcome by pain and praying for rescue. On Sept. 12, she heard a voice say: “I’ve got you, Genelle. My name is Paul, and you’re going to be okay.”
Porter Gifford/Corbis via Getty Images
Rescuers searching the World Trade Center rubble on Sept. 12, 2001.
She was the last person to be pulled from the 9/11 rubble.
Was Paul a symptom of third man syndrome? Guzman-McMillan has always believed that he was an “angel.” But this may be one example of the third man phenomenon in which a real person was involved: In 2011, a firefighter named Paul Somin identified himself as her likely rescuer.
That said, Guzman-McMillan has her doubts. She’s not sure that Somin is the “Paul” that she met that day.
“Angels do exist. Paul was my angel,” she told the Washington Post. “That was the miracle I was praying for.”
