A Tribute to Albert Alfy William Elmarry

Albert Elmarry was a 30 year old computer technician who worked for Cantor Fitzgerald that fateful day of September 11, 2001. He was a gentle, religious man, who started every day with a prayer. It was said that he often brought religious books to his World Trade Center office to read over lunch.
His weekends were centered around church, family and soccer, said his wife, Irinie. He taught a religion class to fourth- and fifth-graders on Saturday nights. He attended mass Sunday mornings, then visited an aunt who lived nearby. Sunday evenings he played soccer in a league. Though he missed the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox church he left in Cairo, he grew to love the people he met at a Christian church in New Jersey.
He met his wife, Irinie Guurguis, in 1998 when he returned home to Cairo, Egypt for the wedding of his brother. It was a whirlwind romance and, 2 weeks later, became engaged. “It was crazy,” recalled Irinie Guirguis, who married Albert Alfy Elmarry, a computer specialist, one year later. “We just knew we were right for each other.”
By the time they married in November 1999, Mr. Elmarry had started work in New York at Cantor Fitzgerald. Ms. Guirguis followed him. They lived in an apartment in Edison, N.J., and embarked on an exciting new life together. Although they were sometimes homesick for their families in Egypt, it was clear that Mr. Elmarry job was going well — so well that the couple decided to buy a house.
They closed on a town house in North Brunswick, N.J., on Aug. 1. Several weeks later, Ms. Guirguis discovered she was pregnant with the couple’s first child, a girl.
His memorial service drew his parents from Egypt, as well as uncles from Illinois and Texas. “The church was full of people, thousands of people,” said his wife. “Everyone there called him an angel.”
On this day, the fifth anniversary of his untimely passing, I pray that he was greeted by Christ’s warm, loving embrace that day, and that his family has found peace and happiness. And I also pray for all the rest of the victims of that fateful day and hope that we never forget.