Marcy Borders, the dust-covered woman remembered in one of the most iconic 9/11 photographs, died Monday of stomach cancer. She was 42.
Nicknamed the "dust lady" after the image showed her covered in ash, the photo became one of the enduring pictures from the
tragedy in New York City, according to the New York Daily News. Borders had worked as a legal assistant for Bank of America on the 81st floor at 1 World Trade Center when the attacks happened.
"I can't believe my sister is gone," Michael Borders, Marcy Borders' brother,
posted on Facebook Tuesday, according to the Jersey Journal.
A cousin, John Borders, honored his relative on Facebook as well, calling her "my hero."
"[Marcy Borders] unfortunately succumbed to the diseases that [have] ridden her body since 9/11," John Borders wrote on Facebook. "In addition to losing so many friends, coworkers, and colleagues on and after that tragic day, the pains from yesteryear [have] found a way to resurface."
The Jersey Journal wrote that Borders, a resident of Bayonne, New Jersey, fell into depression after 9/11 and checked into rehab in 2011. Borders, who was a mother of two, wondered before her death if her cancer, diagnosed a year ago, was related to 9/11.
"I'm saying to myself 'Did this thing ignite cancer cells in me?'" Marcy Borders told the newspaper. "I definitely believe it because I haven't had any illnesses. I don't have high blood pressure . . . high cholesterol, diabetes."
Borders was 28 when the World Trade Center was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. She made her way down the stairs of 1 World Trade Center to a sidewalk when the south tower began to fall.
A stranger pulled Borders into the lobby of a building as the other tower started to fall and photographer Stan Honda took the photo of her.
Many remembered Borders on social media.
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