9/11 Survivors Share Message of Kindness 25 Years Later

Patti Monachino and Raymond Keating survived one of America's darkest days, and now they're spreading a message of light.

At a memorial service in New Bern, North Carolina, the two 9/11 survivors stood before dozens of people with a simple plea. Be kinder to strangers, because you never know what pain they're carrying.

Monachino was on the 44th floor of the South Tower when the second plane hit. As she rushed down the stairs to safety, firefighters were running up past her.

"I just looked at them, and I said, 'Be careful and be safe and thank you, thank you,'" she recalled. She had survived the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and that experience helped save her life again on 9/11.

Keating was on the ground floor of the North Tower when the first plane struck. He escaped with his life and has thought about that day every day since.

"For whatever reason, the Lord had spared me that day," Keating said. "And I treat every day as a gift."

The New Bern Fire Department and the New Bern Firemen's Museum hosted Friday's service at Memorial Park. The ceremony took place in front of a memorial dedicated to the 343 New York City firefighters who died that day.

Why This Inspires

Both survivors remembered something powerful about the days after September 11th. Americans treated each other differently, with more compassion and unity than they'd shown before.

"After 9/11, everybody was so nice to each other," Monachino said. "United we stand, divided we fall."

Keating echoed her sentiment with practical advice. "Try to be a little kinder to somebody," he urged. "Somebody you don't know, because you don't know what kind of pain they may be going through."

Twenty five years after the worst terrorist attack on American soil, two people who stared down death want us to remember what brought us together, not what tore us apart.