In her own words, in incredible detail, Manning recalls that terrifying event that changed her life forever.<\/b>
\nNEW YORK (CBSNewYork) \u2013 Ten years ago, a victim of the World Trade Center attacks survived against nearly impossible odds and shared her harrowing, and inspiring, story with us. For the landmark 20th commemoration, she spoke with Kristine Johnson once again. Johnson spoke with Lauren Manning to see how she is doing now. \u201cHow does it feel to be here?\u201d Johnson asked. \u201cAt once feels wrapped in an enormous number of memories both tragic and sad, but in so many ways hopeful. Just to see the World Trade Center rebuilt and this beautiful plaza and remembrance to all of those who are gone. So it\u2019s a mixed feeling,\u201d Manning said. They first spoke a decade ago. Manning\u2019s book, Unmeasured Strength, then just published, recalled her experience as a victim, and survivor, of the attacks on the World Trade Center. \u201cThe entire 110 story tower is trembling. I see people lying on the floor covered in flames. Like them, I am on fire,\u201d Manning wrote. In her own words, in incredible detail, she recalls that terrifying event that changed her life forever. \u201cThe memories I have of the beauty of that morning, as so many of us do, and where I was, and what I was doing, was certainly hyper clear. And it was that clarity that in many ways, I think, helped me make the decision that decision to live,\u201d Manning said. Manning, on her way to work for Cantor Fitzgerald, was doused with jet fuel and on fire, running from the lobby of the North Tower. Her devastating injuries meant months in the hospital and countless surgeries. Even now, her healing is ongoing. \u201cI, I live in an ongoing state of pain. At times it\u2019s more severe than others, the fragility of my skin,\u201d Manning said. \u201cThe infections, the amputations, the lung collapses. I should have been gone long ago, but since then it has been just a struggle with plateaus that have been reached, and fortunately we don\u2019t always stay on the top as long as we hope for,\u201d Manning said. Manning says she fought then, as she does today, for her children \u2013 her oldest son now in college. She adds she is not the only one who bears scars from this attack. \u201cBoth of my children have certainly been impacted, from what they call an intergenerational traumatic perspective, and they\u2019ve both suffered a latent PTSD. It is very difficult. When you both have the blessing of your mother. I am here, and that certainly is the biggest grace for them, although not many days, as they remind me. But it\u2019s also the moment where they have to look at a body that is full of scars, full of the wounds of a war that they cannot quite imagine I ever could have survived,\u201d Manning said. She says there is still an emotional burden in the heaviness of these days,20 years later. \u201cYou have to prepare yourself emotionally as the dates get closer and closer?\u201d Johnson asked. \u201cYes, I think this year in particular, I\u2019ve been preparing myself since the new year, that we were coming up on this landmark anniversary,\u201d Manniing said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s, you kind of got to batten down the hatches, because the onslaught, and the wrongness of it all.\u201d She says hearing the names of friends and colleagues lost adds to the raw sadness of the occasion, but says it\u2019s vital. \u201cWithout this remembrance, it is too easy to forget the enormity and the tragedy, the impact not only on the immediate families, but now their children, and their children, their children\u2019s children, and the world at large. Humanity is an imperfect race in all ways, but we do not continue to remain vigilant in support of each other,\u201d Manning said. It\u2019s that support she says, that is a cornerstone for strength, her strength. Manning says it\u2019s critical that we believe in ourselves, and in others to move forward. \u201cPrecisely why the memorial is so important, and the names of those who are dead or recognized every year, is because it is an affirmation. It is the mortar that continues to cement together, a continuous building and rebuilding of who we are, both as a society, as a country,\u201d Manning said. And, most importantly, she says, there is also a grace, however fragile, in this day. \u201cI went from being a cripple body with him, that I could not bend into a fist. And over time, I was finally able to create a fist, and in this is my unmeasured strength and the power we really all have to persevere. We believe everyone has that ability,\u201d Manning said. \u201cSo truly, every day, as we approach the anniversary. I kind of consider it my second birthday. It\u2019s just a rebirth of gladness and of joy.\u201d<\/p>\n