N.H. woman had faith in daughter's sense

With her daughter trapped in a Mumbai hotel overtaken by terrorists, Barbara Cirincione endured the hours of uncertainty from her New Hampshire home by monitoring the news with family, praying, and trying to reassure herself that her daughter was the sort who would stay cool in a crisis.

"I was scared," said Cirincione, 75, of Manchester, N.H., whose daughter, Rachel, was staying at the besieged Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel. "But I know my daughter, and I know that she wouldn't do anything foolish, and she would do everything to keep herself safe, and that's exactly what she did."

Rachel Cirincione, 43, called her mother Wednesday morning, New Hampshire time, to tell her that she had delayed her departure from Mumbai because she had not been feeling well. Soon after, terrorists stormed the hotel in a violent siege, and an explosion left the phone line in the hotel room dead, Rachel Cirincione told the New Hampshire Union Leader.

Rachel's mother, in a phone interview with the Globe yesterday, said she received hourly updates from another person encamped at the hotel who knew her daughter's location and status. Meanwhile, Barbara Cirincione, a retired nurse, monitored the news from India on TV and online with Rachel's sister, niece, and nephew at her Manchester home.

Barbara Cirincione also contacted her minister at Bethany Chapel Community Church, a United Church of Christ-affiliated congregation, who quickly established a "prayer chain" among congregants, she said.

After about eight hours, Rachel managed to escape; her family in New Hampshire learned of her rescue by phone, then watched it unfold moments later on the Internet, Barbara Cirincione said.

Rachel Cirincione, who lives in New York and works as a tour director for a travel company, had been in India for training. Back at home, she told the Union Leader she tried to leave her hotel room during the attacks and go into the hall, but heat and flames and the sound of gunshots drove her back.

In her room, Rachel Cirincione tried unsuccessfully to shatter a double-paned window with a chair and to attract the attention of firefighters below by flashing the room lights, she told the paper. Then she remembered she had an emergency head lamp in her pack; its bright, blinking light ultimately lured rescuers to her window. Firefighters smashed the glass with axes and guided her to safety on a ladder truck.

"She's doing fine," said her mother, her own voice hoarse from the ordeal and from being "talked out."

"She's been spunky since she was a kid."