My Cousin Paul

MONOLOGUE OF HEARTBREAK

"He adored me, and I adored him," said Cindy Furmato. "We love him, we want him back."

Cindy and Paul Furmato met 17 years ago when both were undergraduates at Florida Institute of Technology. They were taking a trigonometry class, and despite earning high marks, "I pretended that I didn't know what was going on and asked for his help," she said. "We had our first date in a Chinese restaurant, and we were in love from then on. It was just him and me. 

"He was my other half, and now I have to go on without him," Mrs. Furmato said, tears in her eyes. "It's the hardest for the children. Their father had always been there for them. "Paul just turned 11 last week, but Daddy wasn't there. Stephanie is 9. She always went fishing with Daddy. She says now every time she fishes, it is for and with him. Theresa is 6. She is very very bright, just like her Daddy. Every morning, I don't want to get out of bed, but I have to, because the children need me.

"He got me this house, and it was our castle. But we only had seven weeks."

Mr. Furmato, 37, was a vice president at Cantor Fitzgerald.

PAUL FURMATO, 37, DEVOTED FIRST TO FAMILY

At 37, Paul James Furmato had started to retool his life. He recently lost 20 pounds, bought a new house in Colts Neck, and was making plans to work closer to home so he could spend more time with his wife and three children. 

While he enjoyed his work as vice president and institutional sales trader for Cantor Fitzgerald Securities, Mr. Furmato knew every minute he spent traveling to the company's World Trade Center office was time away from his family. When the company decided to open an office in Shrewsbury, he jumped at the opportunity. 

"Instead of commuting on the road, he wanted to spend more time raising his kids and being close to home," said his younger brother, Mark. "The office was supposed to be completed Sept. 1, and he would have been out of the building." 

Mr. Furmato was among those working on the 104th floor when a hijacked plane crashed into the North Tower on Tuesday. 

"He was a wonderful husband. He was my prince," said his wife, Cindy. "He raced home every night when the market closed at 4 p.m. His happiest moments were being home with me and the kids." 

At night, he would coach his 10-year-old son's basketball and baseball teams in Colts Neck. On the weekends, you could find him fishing on his boat. 

"He loved boating and fishing with his family," said Mark Furmato, who spent last weekend preparing the boat for the next tuna fishing trip. Mark said his brother always seemed to be moving at a fevered pace so he could find more time to spend with his children: Paul Jr., Stephanie, 9, and Theresa, 6. 

"On any given Saturday, he'd have both his cars washed and waxed before anybody would be up in the neighborhood," Mark said. 

In addition to his wife and three children, Mr. Furmato is survived by his parents, Joseph and Margaret, of Point Pleasant and Vero Beach, Fla.; his brothers, Joseph Jr., of Point Pleasant, and Mark, of Brielle, and sisters Carol DeBenedictis of Point Pleasant and Jill Keough of Westwood. 

Funeral services will be held at 9 a.m. at St. Mary's R.C. Church, Phalanx Road and Route 34 in Colts Neck. A memorial service will follow at the Holmdel Mausoleum. Donations can be made to the American Red Cross, 1540 W. Park Ave, Tinton Falls.