Career
Stan Honda, a photographer for Agence France Presse, captured an image of Borders, completely covered in dust from the building collapse, that subsequently became widely described as "iconic". The image became so well-known and so widely distributed, that Borders became known as "The Dust Lady". A resident of Bayonne, New Jersey, Borders had been working at the World Trade Center for four weeks prior to the attack.
According to the The Routledge Companion to United Kingdom Counter-Terrorism, Borders said that she never recovered from the trauma of the attack.
Borders said that a key event in her recovery and return to sobriety was learning of the death of Osama bin Laden. Borders had preserved the outfit she wore in the iconic photo, without removing any of the dust.
The image Honda took of Borders became iconic. She was remembered in many retrospective articles about the attacks of 9/11.
The Daily Telegraph chose her as one of the survivors they profiled on the tenth anniversary of the attack.
Borders had been invited to spend the tenth anniversary of 9/11 at a memorial event in Germany. Borders was diagnosed with stomach cancer in August 2014. Borders"s cancer had already saddled her with a crippling debt of $190,000—even though she had not yet received surgery and she still needed additional chemotherapy.
Borders said she could not even afford to get her prescriptions filled.
She believed her cancer was triggered by the toxic dust she was exposed to when the World Trade Center collapsed, having once stated, "I definitely believe it because I haven"t had any illnesses. I don"t have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes." Borders died from cancer on August 24, 2015.
Borders and Sharbat Gula are the two main characters of Pamela Booker"s 2009 play Dust: Murmurs and a Play. Both Borders and Gula first became known to the public through iconic photos.
Booker dedicated her play to Borders and Gula.