Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas - Sep 11, 2006 "There was a woman, burned to the bone. I could actually see the ivory marrow. We tried not to stare, but as she passed down the stairwell, tears rolled and mouths fell open. The burned woman trembled uncontrollably. What was left of her flesh looked like it had been boiled and it was actually slipping off her body, just hanging there, loose. In total shock, her arms were stiff and stretched out in front of her as if she were imitating a sleepwalker and she never looked at a soul.”

As someone who was working in the World Trade Center’s Tower One on the morning of September 11, 2001, Leslie Haskin will never forget the soul-searing images she witnessed or the horror she and so many others endured during her long, panic-driven odyssey toward escape on that black day. In Between Heaven and Ground Zero (Bethany House Publishers, August 2006), she shares what really happened to those who struggled to find their way out of the quickly closing doors of the tomb that was the doomed North Tower.

With courageous, laid-bare vulnerability and painfully honest openness, Leslie reveals the details of her meteoric rise up the corporate ladder from a small brokerage firm in New York to become one of only two African American operations directors for one of the largest insurance companies in the country. Her love of the corporate life, the jet set, the bright lights of New York and all the glamour of the Big Apple was bolstered by the perks, prestige and power that her titles and corner office in Tower One of the World Trade Center afforded. Everything was going her way—until it all came crashing down around her on 9/11.

Between Heaven and Ground Zero discloses the harrowing details of Leslie’s long journey toward freedom after the plane hit her building. Down flight after flight of stairs in an almost mindless effort to reach some kind of safety, she struggled through the stench of pouring-down jet fuel and chemicals, rusted metal and raging fires, past a decapitated man and dozens of other dead and dying victims of the attack. In the midst of the bloody, horrible carnage, she found herself calling out to God, a childhood friend long ago forgotten amid the pride of her new life. He heard her and delivered her from the collapsing inferno.

Suffering from severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Leslie eventually lost her home, her career and her life savings. But with faith and medical help, she has emerged from the symptoms of her illness to shine as a remarkable testimony to the enduring legacy of hope. Between Heaven and Ground Zero is an unforgettable tale, steeped not in sorrow, but in the overwhelming power of the human spirit to emerge victorious from even the most devastating tragedy.

Leslie grew up in Chicago, the youngest girl of 15 children born to a Bible-thumping minister and his choir director wife. She was, by all accounts, the most stubborn and the one most likely to test the limits and get a spanking before bed. Her parents were devout in their faith, so the household and family life was strict, religious, modest and very controlled. She had childhood dreams of becoming a teacher and a preacher, but there was another plan in store for Leslie.

In high school, Leslie was the NAACP’s National ACT- SO winner for two consecutive years and she also wrote a column for the Chicago Sun-Times. After graduation, she attended Columbia University and Blackburn College where the money eventually ran out and she returned home. She stayed until 1985, the year her father died, when she moved to New York and began working in a small brokerage firm in New York City. She worked her way up the corporate ladder and eventually became director of operations for one of the largest insurance companies in the country and one of only two African Americans to hold executive title within the corporation’s eastern region. Along the way, she became a single parent to son Eliot Cameron Hill, who is now 17.

Loving the corporate life, the jet set, existentialism, single parenting, the bright lights of New York and all the glamour of the Big Apple, Leslie easily settled into all the perks, prestige and power that her titles and corner office in Tower One of the World Trade Center afforded. Then, on September 11, 2001, it all came crashing down around her. Fortunate to escape with her life, Leslie endured the loss of her home, her career, her life savings and everything she had worked so hard to accumulate and accomplish. She struggled for years to overcome the paralyzing effects of severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and, in the process, discovered the life she feels God meant for her all along.

Marking September 11, 2001, as a cornerstone, Leslie now leads a singles ministry at The Goodwill Church in Montgomery, New York, and is the founding director of a ministry that helps women and children who are homeless and victims of domestic violence. The keynote speaker at churches and various national and regional conferences, including West Point Christian Women of the Chapel Conference, Women in Ministry Events and “The Place of Surrender” Christian Singles Conference, Leslie mesmerizes audiences with her true life account of surviving the fall of the Twin Towers and her testimony of being a single mom, climbing the corporate ladder and then losing it all.

Her amazing story of leaving the success of corporate America, rebuilding her life around Jesus Christ and becoming an inspirational and evangelical speaker, writer and ministry leader is a real inspiration to audiences across the U.S. Leslie speaks about hope, freedom and fighting to survive, but mostly about how God’s love transforms.

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