It was one of those simple, wonderful weekends families have as summer winds down. For the King family, it would be the last.
Robert C. King Jr. of Bellerose Terrace was a member of the New York City fire department's Engine Company 33 in Manhattan. He died in the north tower.
King made lemon chicken and rice, and as they were leaving he lay in the driveway to show his 3-year-old daughter how to do snow angels - even though it was September.
"He was a wonderful father," Audrey King said of her son. He knew just what clothes to bring for an overnight and how to fix his daughter's hair.
He was also a gifted carpenter. At the firehouse, he made a trestle table that seats 25 and a watch desk. At home, he made bunk beds for his boys and a jewelry box and birdhouse for his mother.
He also built relationships, she said. The youngest of her three children, King "was the one who held the family tight. He just held everybody together," his mother said. "That changed after he was gone; he was my only son, and I waited so long for him. He was very special."
But, she said, had he lived when so many of his comrades had died, it would have changed him forever. "If he had lived and had seen that mess, I honestly believe he wouldn't be right," she said.
New York Newsday, 2001