13 years.... minus 3 days

3 days...

September 8th, 2001. A Saturday. I'm sure I was doing my best to sleep in, but probably wasn't successful. Nothing stands out about that day for me, weekends were pretty much catching up on chores, maybe watching some racing on television (since Mr. Excitement Jimmy Spencer was still racing, I didn't miss a race). I really don't remember where I was, or what I was doing.

Abe Zelmanowitz was busy that night. As a devout Orthodox Jew, he certainly was joined in celebrating Shabbat. He would have enjoyed the traditional Saturday afternoon meal with his family, dining on the slightly sweet Challah followed by dishes reheated from Friday's dinner as is Jewish custom. The evening would be filled with companionship and song.

Abe was a computer programmer for Empire BCBS. He worked in a cubicle near his friend, Edward Beyea. They were together every day for many years, but on Saturday the 8th neither knew they would end their lives the same way. On the 27th floor of Tower One.

Abe, described by friends as a "kippa-wearing Jewish-American with a lifelong sense of self-sacrifice and commitment, would stay with his friend Edward until the very end. There was no choice to be made, that was how it was to be.

You see, Abe's friend Edward was a quadriplegic. Abe sent Edward's caregiver out of the building in the first minutes after the plane struck. He would stay behind with Edward, she had a family to get home to. He would make sure they were ready when the rescue team arrived. That help never came.

President George W. Bush remembered Abe's heroism in one of the many post 9-11 speeches he gave.  "And we have seen our national character in eloquent acts of sacrifice. Inside the World Trade Center, one man who could have saved himself stayed until the end and at the side of his quadriplegic friend."

Abe Zelmanowitz's remains were identified nearly a year later.

Abe Zelmanowitz, friend of Edward Bey, was laid to rest beside his parents in the Mount of Olives Jewish Cemetery in Jerusalem.

Abe Zelmanowitz, who coworkers said was praying with his Roman Catholic friend before Tower One collapsed, had come home.

3 days...