A wife remembers Wayne J. Saloman

Wayne J. Saloman, 43, of Seaford, was a Cantor Fitzgerald vice president in the government bonds division, on the 104th floor of the north tower. His remains were found Oct. 8, his wife's birthday.

A wife remembers

Every now and then, Debra Saloman is reminded of the loss in unexpected ways. The couple's only child, Justin, who was 8 when Wayne Saloman was killed, was very close to his father.

"Justin said to me, 'Ma, I know you're here for me. I know grandpa is here for me, but it hurts a lot when I play baseball and other kids' dads are out there but mine is not,' " recalled Debra Saloman.

Nearly a decade later, Justin is still struggling to come to terms with his father's death. "Justin is very angry right now," she said. "He's angry that they took his father away and he felt it was for no good reason."

Suddenly, Saloman, who shared most of her adult life with her husband of 16 years, was on her own.

"I never had to call a handy man. He did it all," she said.

She misses her husband's love, his company and his cooking.

Wayne Saloman loved to fish and hunt. He and his friends used to go hunting in the Catskills and the Adirondacks.

"Nobody made venison stew like he did. We don't know what he put in there. We're still trying to figure it out," Saloman said.

Nothing delighted her husband more than to be in the company of his friends and family. When she used to work a half day on Saturdays, she'd come home never knowing who would be visiting at the house.

"Wayne didn't care if you're a ditch digger or the vice president of Cantor Fitzgerald. He was friends with everybody," she said. "There were 1,000 people at his memorial. I did not know half of them."

"I know he's gone," she said. "But every time I look at Justin, I still feel like he's with me." -- Chau Lam