Wayne September 2021

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No. 17 Vol. 9

800-939-JUNK Area Man Urges Others Not to Live in Fear Through His Story of Survival

My Life Publications • 1-800-691-7549

September 2021

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By Steve Sears 7-year Chester Borough resident, William “Will” Jimeno, has co-authored his second book. You can certainly staple an “author” tag on him, but better yet, “grateful survivor” is perhaps more appropriate. Jimeno, an immigrant from Colombia who first grew up in Hackensack, became a Port Authority Police Officer in January of 2001, and was a rookie on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, now known historically as 9/11. When terrorists started that morning’s tragic events in motion, Jimeno called his wife, Allison, and was rushed from the pay phone as he told her he was going to the World Trade Center location, and didn’t have a chance to say, “I love you.” The aftermath of two planes purposely crashing into the World Trade Center towers was Jimeno being buried alive for 13 hours under fallen cement and debris, wondering if he’d ever see his loved ones again. “Something picked me up and just threw me on my back,” he recalls of the horror as the South Tower collapsed. “It was raining concrete down on us; suddenly there was just like 1000 freight trains - a billion freight trains - coming down on us.” He was rescued later that evening, and his Sergeant and fellow survivor, John McLoughlin, 9-hours later. ‘I mean, they were choking on smoke down there,” says Jimeno of his rescuers. “It was horrible. At that point, when they put me on the Stokes basket, they started passing me up the hole. I remember coming up out of the hole, and I looked up and asked, ‘Where is everything?’ Because I could see the moon, I could see the stars, I could see the sky, but I couldn’t see the buildings. That’s when a firefighter said, ‘That’s all gone, kid,’ At that point I started crying. That’s the first time I cried.” Jimeno got to say “I love you” to his wife of now-26 years again, see his oldest daughter, Bianca, grow, and see his wife give birth to a second daughter, Olivia, two months after his rescue. He details this and more in his latest book, “Sunrise Through the Darkness – A Survivor’s Account of Learning to Live Again Beyond 9/11,” which he co-authored with friend and psychologist, Michael Moats, which was released on August 16. And for Jimeno, life and God gave him additional time on earth, and he’s using that time to inspire others. “I’m alive for that second sunlight, and I don’t

Will Jimeno proudly holds his two co-authored books. Photo courtesy of Will Jimeno.

take anything for granted,” says Jimeno, 53, who is also the co-author of a children’s book with illustrator, Charles Ricciardi, titled “Immigrant, American, Survivor – A Little Boy Who Grew Up To Be All Three.” His story was also told in the 2006 Oliver Stone movie, “World Trade Center.” “I’ve been doing speaking engagements since 2003, when I was asked to speak to a school, and exactly what I’ve told you is what I’ve told children: I inspire people because I want them to understand that continued on page 7