On 11 September 2001 Paul Carris went to his office on the 71st floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Centre. He had recently resumed his employment as a civil engineer with the Port Authority. At 8.46 am, soon after he arrived at his office, a hijacked American Airlines plane crashed into the North Tower. Paul and everyone else working in the North Tower heard the loud sound and soon realised they needed to evacuate the building quickly.

Going down the staircase was slow because of all the people fleeing the building and firefighters coming up. On the 70th floor Paul came across a small group of people trying to help a lady who was struggling. Judith Toppin had heart problems, weighed 300lbs and had serious problems just walking. Paul told the other people he would help Judith down the stairs, and they left him with her.

Paul offered Judith a steadying hand and said, “Stay calm, get up, we are going to walk out of this building together.” Paul supported Judith as, agonisingly slowly, they descended 70 flights of stairs, pausing on each landing to allow others to pass. Soon they were the only ones on the stairs. Paul said, “Once I was committed to caring for Judith, that became my mission, step by step, for the next hour and a half.”

Once outside the building, Paul and Judith began to realize the magnitude of what happened. He said, “We got down to the lobby and at that point, it was really just us, there was nobody behind us. We got out and there was nobody, it was all grey and almost no people.” They headed north toward Vesey Street and then turned a corner. Within minutes of leaving the North Tower, it collapsed and they were able to shelter behind another building.

As they were going down the steps Paul realised Judith, who was a Christian, was saying something and he asked her what it was. She said she was saying the words of Psalm 23 to herself and praying. So, Paul began praying the Lord’s Prayer.

Paul and Judith stayed in touch after 9/11 until she died in 2020. Judith’s family told Paul his heroism gave Judith another 20 years to live and a chance to meet and see her grandchildren grow up. Through Judith Paul, who had been a regular church goer, came to personal faith as he received Jesus as his Saviour and he now serves full time in his church. He says that initially he believed he had saved Judith, but later he realised that helping and leaning on each other saved them both. He says, “9/11 opened a door I didn’t know needed to be open. Things changed radically in terms of my faith being part of everything I did.”