Alexey Razuvaev

Laughing Over Broken Glass
Alexey Razuvaev left Russia and came to the United States in 1994 ‹ just about the same time, as it happened, as Natalia Loginova. They knew each other casually, though mutual friends. But it was not until the end of 1997, when he and Ms. Loginova, the mother of two girls, got together.

"I was working in a laundromat and he was there fixing a computer program, and he was always asking me so many questions," she recalled. "I said, 'Why do you ask so much?' and he said, 'Because I want to marry you.' I said I would never marry him. But he said, 'I love you and I love your children, and maybe I won't have any other chance here to love someone.' "

They married the next year, on Valentine's Day, and Mr. Razuvaev, 40, went on to work at Euro Brokers in the World Trade Center.

Their romance never faded, his wife said.

"He always made us laugh," she said. "One night, he brought me flowers, but I dropped the vase and it broke. He started picking up the pieces, while I was still saying, 'Oh no!' When a friend called, he said, 'My wife is in a very bad mood, she threw things at me, and I am picking up the glass," and we all began laughing, so it was a joke, and not sad."