Boswell said she arrived at her job at Affiliated Physicians at 7:45. "I was sitting at my desk, heard a boom, looked out the window, seen books falling, looked down, seen people running."

She was at her desk on the third floor of 5 World Trade Center which was eventually crushed by the collapsing towers. She was doing her job the way she did every morning as a medical biller in a building where just to get on the third floor, a person had to produce a photo ID and then have a picture taken. No one thought it possible that terrorists would fly commercial airplanes into the Twin Towers, or any other building in America. Boswell didn't, not that day.

"All of my co-workers made it out," Boswell, a short African-American with a soft voice and a contagious smile. "But when we got out there was chaos."

Boswell described a scene out of hell. When Boswell and her co-workers made it downstairs, she said the lobby was already crashing in. People were trampling each other trying to get out. Boswell said she helped an old lady who, Boswell said, was "at least 80."

"She didn't want to take off her shoes," Boswell said. "And so I snatched her and made her take off her shoes because I told her 'I'm not going to leave you here.' "

Boswell, who said she's a diabetic, said she knew her sugar was way too high that day as she stood across the street, holding the hand of a little old lady. "Then I look up, I see the people holding hands and just jumping out the windows," she said, tearing up. "I said 'Oh my God I don't believe this!' "

People running toward them, fleeing the carnage, told Boswell and the lady to move back. As they began to run with the crowd, "here comes the second plane hitting the other building," she said. "We see this huge fire and we're running for our lives -- me and this 80 year old lady, I dragged her all the way.

"We get all the way to Broadway, get to the Brooklyn Bridge. We were going to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge when all we heard was click click click that was the building about to collapse."

Boswell said it was as if it was the last day in the world -- some disaster of biblical proportions. Running through the ash, not knowing if there were more planes about to crash into more buildings was bad enough. But running over detached feet and hands made the scene all the more worse.

"There was a man in front of me who was at least six feet tall and at least 200 pounds," Boswell said after a real deep breath. "He tripped over a detached foot. We called, 'Mister! Mister!' but he would not get up. I worry about this man to this day. I wonder if he died."

She also wondered why she made it out. After so many died after what Boswell called a day of "ungodly" sights, Boswell wondered why she wasn't buried underneath the tons of rubble known as "Ground Zero."

According to the American Red Cross, the phenomenon known as "survivor's guilt" is very common in situations like the World Trade Center disaster.

"I'm okay physically, but mentally... I don't think I'll ever be the same," Boswell said. "I still feel afraid. I'm angry at everybody. If people talk too loud on the train, it frustrates me. I couldn't even ride the train for three days. I couldn't believe that this happened."

Boswell said she also had a job at Century 21, a popular clothing store across the street from the World Trade Center. "After knowing I was alive I was happy," she said. "But then I realized I was jobless from two places. I wondered why did God leave me here. What did I do so great to still live?"

Boswell eventually made it up to Affiliated's other location that day, at 18 East 48th Street, where she said all they did was watch the news. "This is the first place I came once I made it from the World Trade Center," she said. "I knew I could sit down here, use the phone, rest, wait until the subway started working."

That same day, it was clear that Boswell needed psychiatric help. "I didn't want to see the attack over and over again on TV that Tuesday," she said. "I kept saying to myself that I had to go to bed because I have to go to work. I was convinced that I didn't see 5 World Trade Center hit the floor!"

Boswell said she had a difficult time accepting that there was no more job to go to. Stress and anxiety drove her sugar level up. She said she had a hard time believing that so many people died, so quickly and she was still in the land of the living.

"People die, you have a wake, people come to your house, you eat, you bury, you move on," she said. "But this, this is no closure and you have to read it over and over. And the Daily News on Sunday (September 30) was very harsh to people. They put the front page of the Daily News with the people hanging outside the building."

Boswell said she began to scream when she saw the front page photo. Her aunt then suggested that she seek counseling. Boswell knew she was paranoid, when she screamed at her aunt to "turn off the plane" because a fan was on.

As the days went by, Boswell said, she began to go to Pier 94, where the Red Cross has counselors. There, she said, she realized she had a second chance at life.

"I feel like I was born again," Boswell said. "I know I have a purpose here, I didn't believe that before. I was just working for the green dollar every day, getting up seven in the morning."

But even though she has a newfound faith in God, she said she gets frustrated at the apathy for victims and survivors other than firefighters and police officers.

"If you're not a fireman or a policeman, then you're the third concern down the list," she said. "My heart goes out for the firefighters, but they were doing their job like I was doing my job."

Boswell's job is to live, she decided. Her doctor just told her that she was pregnant. She has family in New Jersey and she has faith again.

"I always believed in a higher power," she said. "But I always questioned God saying, 'Why did you take my mother and my father? Why did you give my grandmother cancer? I was always questioning God. The faith wasn't there.

"Now," she said, smiling, "the faith is there. I know a lot of people ran and a lot of people didn't make it. Today I have the belief that all things are possible with God and even when you think the whole world is not working in your favor and you feel like you don't want to go on, you can do anything you want to do today. I'm happy to be alive. It gets better every day."

Now her sugar level is back under control. Things are not easy but Nicole Boswell will survive -- again.