The ‘waving woman’s’ final moments after New Yorkers filmed the 9/11 terror attack
Edna Cintrón’s life was almost predictable – and she couldn’t have asked for more.
Neither she nor her husband, William, was interested in the martinis and Broadway shows synonymous with life in New York City.
Instead, the pair enjoyed casino buffets at Atlantic City, collected porcelain figurines of angels and ate ice cream on the sofa.
William, who was 44 at the time, said: ‘She was also my backbone. She made me strong. She made me who I am today.’
But one day Edna, 46, went to work as an administrative assistant for insurance firm Marsh & McLennan – and never came home.
On September 11, 2001, a United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, tearing through the 93rd and 99th floors.
Edna Cintrón was ‘outspoken’, her husband said
The impact destroyed all escape routes, and worried loved ones and emergency workers alike assumed the worst.
But as people watched in disbelief as office supplies, twisted metal and concrete fell from the skies, they realised that some people had survived.
New Yorkers 400 miles below photographed and filmed a woman, believed to be Edna, standing at the edge of the flaming hole left by the jet and waving through it.
The Marsh & McLennan’s offices were on the 93rd floor, and Edna gestured for help for about 20 minutes, near another man doing the same.
She quickly became known as the ‘waving woman’
At 10.28am, the impact site collapsed, and Edna became one of the nearly 3,000 people who died that day.
In the wake of the disaster, William wandered around Manhattan carrying a photograph of his wife, asking panicked office workers and emergency responders if they’d seen her.
He tried St Vincent’s, a nearby hospital, but staff had no record of her. At the disaster site, he was turned away.
William told The Independent at the time: ‘They said we’d interfere. We can’t just be in the way.’
By September 12, he was at the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue asking how to file a missing person’s report.
Edna’s body was never recovered, although William ‘tentatively identified’ her as the woman waving in video footage, according to a memorial page.
Her gold engagement ring, however, was found in the rubble and donated to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.
Who was Edna Cintrón?
Edna was born in Puerto Rico on October 14, 1954, and her family moved to Delancey Street in Lower Manhattan when she was five.
They weren’t the richest – Edna’s mum gave her a few cents a week as pocket money. She didn’t graduate high school.
‘She experienced a lot of stuff,’ William said.
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Edna is believed to have been the ‘waving woman’ (Picture: AFP)
Edna met her future husband in 1987. She was chatting with her friend at her home in Upper Manhattan when William walked into the kitchen.
He recalled: ‘I was charming at that time; I wore cashmere.’
The couple managed a flower shop in Harlem that they jointly owned, Sweet William’s Florist, while living in East Elmhurst, Queens.
For a spell, they were briefly homeless, and Edna supported William as he recovered from alcoholism, her obituary states. He stayed sober thanks to her support.
William said: ‘Fourteen years with her, that was my life, my world. I knew when I went home I was in the best of hands, loved, cared for.’
9/11: 25 years later
It has been 25 years since the horrific 9/11 attacks that brought down the Twin Towers in New York City, claiming the lives of thousands.
Follow Metro’s coverage of the 25th anniversary of 9/11 as we look back on the tragic attack, those who died, survived, and those who helped:
- How an injured bookkeeper helped save the lives of six firefighters on 9/11
- A tribute to all the victims who died on 9/11
- Who was the ‘red bandana man’ who saved dozens of people on 9/11?
- Remembering the children who lost their lives on the fateful 9/11 flights
- A look back at how the 9/11 attack unfolded
- The story behind 9/11’s haunting ‘Falling Man’ photo
Thousands of people died (Picture: AFP)
Willian remembered his wife not as the ‘waving woman’, but as a ‘strong’ person who always had dinner on the table when he came home.
He died on September 24, 2021, after moving to Kissimmee, Osceola County, Florida.
He was 64.
Marsh & McLennan told Metro that it hosted a public, digital memorial that honours the 358 workers and friends who died in 9/11.
One friend wrote on a tribute page to Edna: ‘I will never forget when I first saw Edna. An amazing woman who should never be forgotten or ignored.’
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