A wife remembers Richard Bruehert

Richard G. Bruehert, 38, of Westbury, was on a conference call on the 96th floor of the north tower when the hijacked plane struck the floors below him. The vice president of the technology group at Marsh & McLennan survived the initial impact, his wife said, but could not escape.

A wife remembers

There wasn't a challenge Bruehert didn't like.

He wanted to fly an airplane. So, he signed up for training for a year. He wanted to buy a sailboat, but Bruehert didn't know how to operate the craft. He took lessons. During the day, he worked. At night, he went to classes to get a master's degree in business from the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University in Brookville.

"He doesn't just do it, he did it all the way," said his wife, Jo Anne Bruehert of St. Augustine, Fla. "That's just his personality."

Above all, Bruehert loved spending time with his family, including his two young daughters, Christina and Danielle.

Whether he was gardening or working out, one or two of his daughters were by his side, his wife said. When Bruehert ran on the treadmill or rode on the stationary bike in the basement, Christina joined her father. When he was working in the yard, the girls attempted to help him rake the leaves.

Three years after her husband died, Jo Anne Bruehert, who has not remarried, moved to St. Augustine with her two daughters.

"Being a single parent you don't have that other parent to help you," she said.

"When it comes down to making decisions for the children, you don't have a partner to assure you you're making the right decisions. It all falls on you. That's the hardest part." -- Chau Lam