Edward F. Pullis

Fan of Tropical Fish

Before Edward Pullis started a family, he was devoted to his tropical fish. "Yellow and red and blue," his wife, Melissa, said. "He loved his big fish tank."

But once the children came along — two sons and a daughter — Mr. Pullis, 34, a consulting broker for Aon Corporation, shifted his focus. "He played with the kids," Mrs. Pullis said. "He liked to take them out to dinner, to the movies. He just loved to spend time with them."

The Pullises, who met in the Brooklyn of their youth, first moved to Staten Island. Then, in 2000, they bought a center-hall Colonial in New Jersey, in Hazlet, near Middletown. "I knew it was a nice town," Mrs. Pullis said. "Good schools for the kids, room enough for everybody. This was it."

Together, husband and wife designed a dream kitchen. Mr. Pullis gutted the old one and installed the new one.

In December, three months after the World Trade Center fell, Melissa Pullis received a letter. Her husband's black leather wallet had been recovered, in good condition. But all that was inside it was his car registration.

"No driver's license, no ID, no money," she said. "His wallet was full of stuff and somebody ransacked it. I don't understand why."