by Cheryl DePaolo
everyone called her that because her skin was the shade of cocoa.
Coco had dropped out of school when she got pregnant, and she had a young son at home. She had struggled to
support herself and her son, and she had been on Public Assistance for a time. However, she did not feel good
about herself. She had grown up attending a Pentecostal church and she had strayed from her belief in God and
the values that she had been taught.
She had worked in the travel agency for a few months. She had been so happy to get this job. She was able to
get off of Social Services and she enjoyed dressing in nice clothes and working in an upscale area. On the
weekends she left her little boy with her mother and went out, drinking and dancing with her friends.
Coco did not work in one of the towers. She worked on the 11th floor of the 47 story office building known as
7 World Trade Center. She was at work when the first plane hit. Everyone ran to the windows, and people were
screaming and crying. They knew right away that everyone in the plane and many stories above and below the
plane were killed immediately. All of the workers wanted to leave. However, her supervisor stated that no one
was to leave his or her workstation. The phones were ringing off the hook. She was afraid of losing her job, so
she returned to her desk. She saw several managers, including her supervisor, grab their jackets and leave.
When the second plane hit, fear of being fired was replaced by fear of losing her life. Screaming, everyone rushed
for the elevator bank. However, it was impossible to stand still and wait for the elevator; she headed for the
stairs. The stairs were jammed with people, most of them sobbing. It seemed to take hours to get down the
stairs. She believed that is was the end of the world as she knew it.
Coco began to pray. She cried out to God to save her, to let her raise her little boy. She declared to God that
she would change her life; that she would live for Him again.
At the exit was swept along by the crowd. "North, head north!" everyone was shouting. The streets were full of
people. Coco joined the crowd that walked across the bridge to Brooklyn. She watched in horror as first one
tower and then the other fell.
7 World Trade Center caught fire and collapsed later that day. Weeks later, Coco asked me if I wanted to know
the worst thing about that day. She cried for the first time as she said, "Being treated like an animal. Being told to
stay and work while the managers all left".
However, Coco had not forgotten her cries to God in the stairwell. She had started attending church and taking
her son to Sunday School. She was reading her Bible and praying. She said that her friends didn't believe she
would keep it up for long. They told her that she had made it out, she should let it go at that. But she stated that
she knew that God had radically changed her that day.
I prayed with her, thanking God for saving first her life and then her soul. I still pray for Coco.
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