Professional tour guide Christina Stanton says she has educated more than 30,000 people about all things New York, but because of 9/11, she found herself a part of one of the most meaningful tours she now offers.

Stanton is marking three decades as a licensed tour guide. She has introduced visitors to Central Park, architecture in Greenwich Village, and even shopping tours. Now, she shares what she personally experienced on Sept. 11, 2001.

"My husband and I kind of said goodbye to each other"

In July 2001, Stanton and her husband moved just six blocks away from the Twin Towers. Their terrace doors were open on 9/11.

"And I remember my husband saying, 'Do you want your shoes?'" Stanton said.

She ran down the building's 24 flights barefoot. Her husband took their Boston Terrier, named Gabriel.

"Honestly, my husband and I kind of said goodbye to each other," Stanton said.

Recounting that day to a tour group, she said they were covered with dust and debris as they fled.

"We evacuated within seconds of that second plane and we ran to Battery Park, and that's where we were when the Twin Towers came down," Stanton said. "We were evacuated and saved by the 9/11 boat evacuation, which I am forever grateful for."

The stops on Stanton's emotional tour

Stanton says for six years before the attacks, she would take thousands of tourists through the World Trade Center site.

Now, she takes them through the 9/11 Memorial. The stops include the Memorial Glade, a space with rock formations embedded with metal from the World Trade Center site.

"It is dedicated to people who are still dying from the toxins," Stanton told the tour group. "In January, I was diagnosed with uterine cancer, right? There's been 69 cancers that have been related to 9/11 that doctors have formed that connection."

They also stop at the names of Cantor Fitzgerald employees James Patrick White, who was 34 when he died, and his colleague and girlfriend Amy O'Doherty. White was Stanton's husband's fraternity brother.

"I remember when he got the call confirming that Jim had died, he just burst into tears," Stanton said.

A woman of faith, she finds comfort at the Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, the only house of worship destroyed on 9/11, now rebuilt as a national shrine.

"I love seeing Saint Nicholas, kind of helping people in their journey to see Christ. The 3,000 people who died on the day of 9/11, that definitely strikes the chord," Stanton said.

Stanton says the Sphere sculpture is also a symbol of her life before 9/11 because she used to meet tours at its original location.

"It makes me feel like I'm doing something with the pain"

While the tour is educational, it's deeply personal for Stanton and leaves her feeling emotional.

"I want to cry," she said, after finishing a tour. "And I do cry, even 24 years later, [during] about half of my tours."

Her personal connection to that day has an impact on those she's guiding.

"I've read a lot about 9/11, been to the museum, seen a lot of documentaries, but I didn't figure out that I could speak to someone who witnessed this thing," said Boniface Okots, a visitor from Uganda. "That gives me a different perspective to this."

"This was kind of right before when I was born," 16-year-old Jonah Bonin said. "Being here and just seeing what it was today and trying to picture everything that happened in the past 24 years is insane to think about."

"Being able to verbalize and to talk about it is something that's soothing for me. It makes me feel like I'm doing something with the pain," Stanton said.

The tours are weekly and free.

Stanton and her husband moved buildings but still live in the neighborhood.