Carl Bini: `I Told Him to Be
Careful'
They
met when they were 10, two kids from the same Brooklyn
neighborhood. They married at 20 and in 23 years rarely
left each other's side. "He was my best friend," said
Christine Bini of her husband, Carl, who was 43.
So it was completely in keeping with routine that Mr.
Bini telephoned his wife the morning of Sept. 11 at about
8:40 a.m. while she was en route from the couple's home
in Staten Island to her job in Brooklyn just to check in
and say hello. Minutes later he called again. "He told me
about the plane," Mrs. Bini said. "He said he was going.
I told him to be careful."
Carl Bini had been a firefighter for 18 years.
Retirement was only two years away, and he and his wife
had been looking forward to it very much. So were their
daughters, Stephanie, 16 and Desiree, 19. That Tuesday
was to have been a day off for Firefighter Bini. He and a
friend were meeting to discuss a business project for
after retirement. Upon hearing the news of the attack, he
and the friend, also a firefighter, went to the trade
center. "If I could have tied him down, he would have
bitten through the ropes to go," Mrs. Bini said.
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