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Filipinos in the United States are among those who continue to reel from the impact of the 9/11 attack in New York, some 22 years since the tragedy.

Fil-Am nurse Potri Ranka Manis was at the rooftop of her apartment in Midtown Manhattan when she said she witnessed the events in Sept. 11, 2001.

"I saw how the two buildings collapsed," she said in Filipino. "The sight of what happened back then keeps coming back to me."

Others like the Macaraig couple have never set foot near the Ground Zero more than two decades after the attack.

Ruben Macaraig was a computer specialist then on the 40th floor of the Twin Towers.

He shared how he insisted on leaving the building and was already on the 19th floor of the emergency stairs, when they were told to return to the 40th floor.

As Macaraig found his way out, he recalled seeing how the second plane hit the South Tower, the same building he just came from.

"When I was in the middle of the building, I don't know why I looked up but when I did, fire was already coming out of it," he said. "I fell on my knees and I saw a person beside me. I thought, if I help this person I might also die."

After sheltering in a nearby restaurant to call his wife, Macaraig decided to walk to her office. He said this was when he saw people who jumped from the building fall on the streets, and the collapse of the North Tower.

"I thought he was gone," said Loretta, Ruben's wife. "After a few hours more, he came and he was like so red, and covered with ashes and my coworkers hugged him."

Healing through art

Sept. 11 since then proved to be a difficult day for the Macaraig couple.

For years, they said they never spoke about the tragedy – nor did they watch anything related to the terror attack.

The couple said they found a way to cope through art. After her retirement, Loretta got into quilling.

"It really was therapeutic," she said. "Every time I was making art, I forget everything, as if I am all alone in the world."

Ruben, meanwhile, turned to oil painting and wood burning art to get his mind off the events of that fateful day.

Today their home in Hamilton in New Jersy is filled with the couple's works of art.

"I'm thinking that I have a mission to accomplish, that's why I was able to live through it," Rubei said. "But until now, I still don't know what that mission is."

Until that is revealed, Ruben said his mission is to be with his wife and enjoy every moment until they no longer can.