Edward Beyea and Abe Zelmanowitz were not brothers. Well, at least not in the shared DNA sense of the word. Mr. Beyea, 42, and Mr. Zelmanowitz, 55, worked together as computer programmers for Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield in its 27th floor offices in the North Tower. They were great friends, and had been for the dozen years in which they had worked together.
When he was just twenty-one years old, Ed Beyea was rendered a quadriplegic by a diving accident. He did not let this dramatically changed circumstance affect what remained a positive, upbeat approach to life. His mother Janet noted that he often told her, "I'll beat it, Mom." To a great extent, he did. He learned how to type using a stick that he placed in his mouth. At age 30, Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield hired him as a computer programmer. It was a job he performed well and in a way that endeared him to his colleagues. His quadriplegia required him to have a full-time care. Irma Fuller, his nurse's aide, remarked that he loved to tell jokes and he especially loved to laugh, often times laughing so hard that she thought he might fall out of his chair.
Like his friend Ed Beyea, Abe Zelmanowitz never married. He lived in Brooklyn in his brother's home with his brother, his sister-in-law, and their children. Abe Zelmanowitz was an Orthodox Jew, and thus not permitted to ride in a car on the Sabbath. So, every Sabbath morning, irrespective of the weather or the time of year, he walked roughly one hour each direction so that he could eat the Sabbath lunch meal with his elderly father. He was an incredibly handy man, which gift he put to use for the benefit of family and friends, including Ed Beyea. Abe Zelmanowitz knew how much Ed Beyea loved to read and that he was unable to do so when he was in bed. Abe made Ed a special tray that allowed Ed to read while in bed.
On September 11, 2001, after American Airlines Flight 11 struck the North Tower at 8:46 am, Ed and Abe's co-workers began evacuating the North Tower. Confined to his wheelchair, Ed Beyea could not exit via stairs from the 27th floor and the building's elevators, at least some of which had been damaged or destroyed by the plane's impact, were an uncertain proposition at best. Ed Beyea was, for all intents and purposes, trapped.
Irma Fuller was, of course, with Ed Beyea. As he remained behind while his co-workers ran towards safety and life, she did also. At least until Abe Zelmanowitz realized what she was doing. He told her to head downstairs, that he and Ed would work up a plan to get Ed out of the building, and would meet her outside. Whether he believed it when he said and whether she believed it when she heard him say it, I know not. I know simply Irma listened to Abe. Doing so saved her life.
Ed Beyea, Irma Fuller, and Abe Zelmanowitz
Abe Zelmanowitz did not want his brother, Jack, or his sister-in-law, Chavie, to worry so, using his cell phone, he called each of them. He spoke to Chavie after he had talked to Jack and when he did, he told her what had happened, where he and Ed were, and their current situation. According to Chavie, as she and Abe were speaking, she heard another man's voice in the background. Abe told her a firefighter had arrived to help them and had directed them to move to another, presumably safer area.
At 10:28 am, the North Tower collapsed, bonding together forever Ed Beyea, Abe Zelmanowitz, and the "firefighter who had arrived to help them", Captain Billy Burke of the FDNY. Captain Burke, 46, had led his men up into the North Tower in search of people in need of rescue. When he came upon Ed and Abe on the 27th floor and realized that there was no way to get Ed out of the building and that Abe had no intention of leaving his friend there alone to face his fate, Captain Burke of Engine 21 chose to stay with them. He ordered his men to evacuate the building, telling them the same thing that Abe had told Irma Fuller earlier. Whether Captain Burke believed it when he said it and whether his men believed him when they heard him say it, I cannot pretend to know. I do know that his decision saved their lives.
Captain Billy Burke, FDNY
Engine 21
Three distinctly different men, whose lives and legacies are inextricably linked together, serving as a lesson to us all. May neither they nor what they did ever be forgotten.
-AK
No comments:
Post a Comment