“Help me find one of the firefighters who helped save my life,”

Tobin, who was badly injured with a broken ankle, a piece of cement embedded in her crushed helmet, and a shard of glass stuck in her back, joked that she was weirdly comforted to look at Handschuh in the ambulance because “you were way more fucked up than I was.”

It’s hard for Handschuh to put into words the feeling of meeting, and thanking, someone who saved your life. Humbling, embarrassing, and grateful don’t seem to cut it. Borkowsky and McArdle have told Handschuh that he saved their lives; if they hadn’t carried him back to the Battery Park deli, they would have been in the North Tower when it collapsed.

“Not one of them look at themselves as heroes,” he said.

Nevertheless, it still nagged at Handschuh that he was a journalist with an incomplete story. So as the 20th anniversary approached, he figured it was time to make one last push to find his eighth guardian angel.

“Help me find one of the firefighters who helped save my life,” he captioned posts on Instagram and Twitter this week, hoping the power of the internet might finally provide the missing link.

“All my rescuers, all my angels get together on September 11,” Handschuh told The Daily Beast. “And this year it’s time to give him a hug and say, Thank you.’”

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Three presidents and their wives were united side by side at the National September 11 Memorial.

President Joe Biden and the First Lady Jill joined the Obamas and Clintons at the annual 9/11 Commemoration Ceremony on Saturday.

They stood with former President Bill Clinton, former First Lady Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, former First Lady Michelle Obama as well as former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg at the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum on September 11, 2021 in New York City.

From Ground Zero, Biden tweeted: “Twenty years ago, nearly 3,000 lives were cut short by an unspeakable act of cowardice and hatred on 9/11.

“As a nation, we must never forget those we lost during one of the darkest moments in our history and the enduring pain of their families and loved ones.

During the ceremony six moments of silence were held to remember the victims of 9/11.

The times corresponded with the attacks on the World Trade Center towers as well as on the Pentagon and the crash of Flight 93.

Elsewhere, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said"we remember not just who our fallen teammates were, but the mission that they shared”.

Austin said at a Pentagon ceremony: “We recall their common commitment to defend our republic and to squarely face new dangers."

He continued: “As the years march on, we must ensure that all our fellow Americans know and understand what happened here on 9/11 and in Manhattan and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania."

The nation marked the milestone of the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001.

Terrorist group al-Qaeda flew hijacked airplanes which dived into the World Trade Center, Shanksville, PA and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 people in a tragedy which shook the world.

Presidents Biden, Obama and Clinton were at the site where the World Trade Center crumbled two decades ago.

They wore blue ribbons and held their hands over their hearts during the memorial.

Biden had addressed the US on Friday to say the US proved unity was its greatest strength in the wake of 9/11.

"To me that's the central lesson of September 11," he said. "Unity is our greatest strength."