Anthony Luparello, 62 (SNYT)
For the 14 years that he was a maintenance worker at Aon, Anthony called his wife, Geraldine, at 1:45pm, the end of his lunch break. "Just to let me know what's going on," Mrs. Luparello said. "What are we getting for dinner? What did you do? Who did you hear from?"
And when the evening buses got him home to Corona, Queens later than usual, he would be very upset. "He felt it was his time to be home with me, and he shouldn't be sitting on a stupid bus," she said. "I would tell him, 'What's the matter if you came home late? You came home safe.' "
Mr. Luparello was equally serious about his work. Every morning, he got up at 3:30am to start at 6am. "He'd rather be half an hour early than stuck in traffic," his wife said. "He would never take a day off. Headache, flu, cold, you name it. He went to work."
"I would ask him, 'Tony, is the tower going to fall without you?' It was just a joke. But you know, it came down with him." |
