‘I think they saved my life’: 9/11 survivor credits toe rings for keeping her alive

By Hannah Mackenzie

Click here for updates on this story

    HENDERSONVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — A series of strange incidents may have kept Crystal Cattano alive on Sept. 11, 2001.

“I just couldn’t get out of the hotel for one reason or another,” Cattano said. “Now we know, I wasn’t supposed to be out in the plaza at the time I should have been.”

Cattano, a software consultant who now lives in Hendersonville, worked in New York City every Sunday through Thursday. Her part-time home was the Marriott World Trade Center.

“I was actually in the center room on the top floor when the first plane hit,” Cattano recalled. “All the debris was falling before I could get out the door.”

To this day, Cattano credits her life to her toe-rings. She said for some reason, the same jewelry she’d worn many times before just didn’t feel right. She said she spent at least 10 minutes fiddling with her toe rings, making her late for work.

“I think they saved my life,” Cattano said.

If she’d have left her hotel room 30 seconds sooner, Cattano said she likely wouldn’t be here today.

“There’s nothing about this day that to me that is not sad,” Cattano said. “I just always try to make sure that I’ve earned my spot here because it was granted to me, I was blessed with it and it’s important that throughout the year I do right by those who didn’t make it.”

According to Cattano, one of the 9/11 victims was her West Henderson High School classmate, Jennifer Gore. Gore was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 77, along with her husband, Ken. The couple was killed when hijackers crashed the plane into the Pentagon.

“There’s not a year that goes by that I don’t think about Jennifer,” Cattano said.

Cattano said she copes with help from a survivor’s group. It’s a bond they never wanted but feel fortunate to have found. Cattano said they speak regularly and have even traveled back to New York together.

“They’re really some of the only people that I can talk to that know exactly what happened that day,” Cattano said. “I think it helps us get through every anniversary by being able to talk to each other.”

Now after 20 years, Cattano unpacked some of the mementos she had saved from that traumatic day. She still has the shoes she wore while running through debris.

“They’re still dusty,” Cattano said. “They were faithful to me that day got me home.”

Among her collection of hotel room keys, receipts, and a $500 check from the Marriott for her belongings lost when the hotel collapsed alongside the towers, there is also a roll of un-developed camera film. Cattano said she’s not sure she’ll ever get it developed. She doesn’t need the photos as that day is forever imprinted on her soul.

“It’s who I am,” Cattano said. “It was a day in time that is now part of who I am until probably my last breath.”

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.