The miraculous survival of one young American woman from a deadly building collapse 38 years ago in Kansas City, Missouri, was her epiphany to turn to God.
Almost four decades later, Sister Aemeliani, is today an Orthodox nun at a convent in the Holy Metropolis of Thebes and Livadeia, north of Athens.
The former Melanie Sarra Hanson recalls how she was crushed under tons of concrete, rolled up in a ball and severely injured, saying she called out to her guardian angel for help. She was miraculously rescued, as she said, recalling how a hand gripped her right hand, before she found herself outside the debris.
The Hyatt Regency walkway collapse occurred on July 17, 1981. Two walkways, one directly above the other, collapsed onto a tea dance being held in the hotel’s lobby. The falling walkways killed 114 and injured 216.