Every morning, Theresa Hepburn and her two girls would drive Robert A. Hepburn to the train station in Union, N.J., where they lived, for his commute into the city. It was just one of the many routines that defined their family life.
Another unfolded after he settled into his office. He would call every day around 8 a.m. to make sure that Allyson, 6, and Jennifer, 4, were ready for school. And he would always ask what they wanted him to bring them that night. 'They always wanted gum or candy,' his wife said.
When he returned home, he would take care of the girls so their mother could go to her evening job.
Mr. Hepburn, 39, was an office service manager for Marsh USA, a job he had held for only two months. He worked on the 93rd floor of 1 World Trade Center, and his desk was against a window with a view of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and of course he shared it with his family. During the summer, Mrs. Hepburn and the girls took the train into the city every Thursday for lunchtime concerts downtown.
'He would go down to our train and meet us and put us in our seats, and then he’d go back upstairs to work,' she recalled. 'Then he’d come down during his lunch hour and watch the rest of the show with us.'