9/11 survivor who donated shoes to museum shares hope on day of remembrance

Seventeen years after 9/11, survivor Florence Jones shared her thoughts as people all over the world remembered the lives lost that day.

"I hope that it doesn't just become a date on the calendar," she told ABC News. "I hope people do something, you know, maybe in service, in volunteer work."

Jones was working for Baseline Financial on Sept. 11, 2001, at the World Trade Center when planes piloted by terrorists plowed into the two towers in downtown Manhattan. She was on the 78th floor of the South Tower.

Of the last 25 people out of the South Tower that day, she was No. 18. In 2011, ABC News invited Jones to tour ground zero from within the fences for the first time since the day of the attack.

"I remember distinctly saying what a beautiful day this started out to be, and it descended into hell on Earth," Jones told ABC News' David Muir in 2011 as she walked around. "I really thought the end of the island was just going to fall into the East River."

She has since brought her family to the 9/11 Museum.

On 9/11, she took her shoes off and her boss carried them so she could get down the stairs faster. After years of keeping her shoes from that day in a box under her bed, Jones finally donated them to the museum.

She said on Tuesday that she is grateful, especially because she was present for her niece's wedding.

"I do run through the day in my head," she said, "and my heart still aches for those people that needlessly lost their life."