9/11 Survivor Lauren Manning: Unmeasured Strength

Survivor Lauren Manning finds 'new normal' after 9/11

By Bob Minzesheimer, USA TODAY

NEW YORK – A decade after nearly being burned alive at Ground Zero, Lauren Manning has learned to live with "my new normal." Or, as she says, "I dwell in an imperfect place, but it feels just right to me."

At lunch at Philip Marie, her favorite Manhattan restaurant — her husband, Greg, proposed to her here, on bended knee, in 1999 — she needs both of her hands to hold a glass of iced tea.

That's because her hands, along with 82% of her body, were severely burned on 9/11 — part of the story she tells in her memoir, Unmeasured Strength (Holt, $25), published today.

Her daily life is "all compromises," she says, rather matter-of-factly. "But I don't dwell on the compromises. I think about the outcomes. So what if I can't hold a glass in one hand? Or if I have to hold a knife and fork differently? At least I can."...

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