Just a Few Sleeps Away

Andrea Haberman and Allen Kolodzik were engaged last April in the gazebo at St. Norbert's College in Wisconsin, where they met freshman year. At first, she thought he was weird, Mr. Kolodzik said, but by sophomore year they were dating. Sixteen months was not too much time to plan a wedding scheduled for December 2001. By the end of the summer, Ms. Haberman — snap-tight organized — had booked the rooms, bought the dress, planned the honeymoon, made hundreds of lists. They had bought a house in Chicago, where they moved after college, and Ms. Haberman was in the thick of decorating. "We had it all down," said Mr. Kolodzik. "As far in advance as 25-year-olds can — marriage and family and so on and so forth." Ms. Haberman grew up in rural Wisconsin, where her parents own a restaurant. She grew to love Chicago after taking a job there with Carr Futures, but she had never visited, or wanted to visit, New York. But when her company asked her to go there for a day of meetings, she steeled herself. She arrived late Monday night, Sept. 10. She had a 9 a.m. meeting in the north tower on Tuesday. She was there 20 minutes early.