Their Last Date Was the Night Before the Attacks

By Thomas Maier | STAFF WRITER

September 19, 2001

"My heart is broken," Elena Lazar said, sobbing about her only child, whom she buried on Monday. "He was such a wonderful boy."

Eugen Gabriel Lazar, barely able to speak English, had immigrated to America with his Romanian parents when he was 11, the family determined to escape communism.

"We came to this country and he knew only a few words," recalled Elena, who lives in Glendale, Queens, with her husband, Alecsandru. "Romania was Communist at the time and that's why we came here. Not for money. Because of communism, and this country was free."

Eugen Lazar, 27, with a quick mind and insatiable curiosity, mastered his studies at Grover Cleveland High School in Queens and earned a college scholarship to Cooper Union, where he graduated magna cum laude with a degree in engineering.

In June 1992, Lazar was one of 33 Queens high school students named as a Leading Scholastic Achiever in the annual New York Newsday High Honors Competition for the borough.

For two years, Eugen, who lived in Queens with his parents, worked as a computer programmer with eSpeed, a company owned by Cantor Fitzgerald, the bond-trading firm located in Tower One at the World Trade Center. When he got to his 103rd floor office on Sept. 11, he e-mailed his girlfriend, Siu Chong. By the time she read his message, it was too late.

There are more than 600 Cantor Fitzgerald employees still unaccounted for in the World Trade Center attack.

Though they met on a camping trip, Chong recalled that Lazar waited until much later to e-mail her and ask her out. Their first date took place at Lombardi's, a SoHo restaurant that became the couple's favorite. They returned once again Monday night before the fateful blast. "Ironically, we had dinner there," Chong said, barely able to finish her sentence through her tears, " . . . and it was our last date."