Krystine C. Bordenabe

'I Knew She Would Be An Incredibly Good Mother'

This weekend was to be a monumental one in the lives of Krystine and Alfredo Bordenabe - the due date for the couple's first child was Friday.

Krystine Bordenabe, 33, a sales assistant for the investment brokerage firm of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods on the 69th floor of Tower Two, was among those who perished. She had been with the company for about two years.

The couple, who celebrated their first wedding anniversary Aug. 12, were eagerly looking forward to the birth, said her husband. "It was something we talked about a lot and were really anticipating tremendously," he said.

"I knew she would be an incredibly good mother because of the way she raised her son," said Bordenabe, referring to his stepson, Andrew Godsil, 14, her child from a previous marriage. "She was a single mother who did a great job," said Bordenabe, a computer systems analyst who lives in Old Bridge, N.J. His wife graduated from the Chubb Institute of Technology in Jersey City with a degree in business administration.

Bordenabe said his wife's priorities focused around her family. "She was an excellent baker," he said. "Her favorite thing was to bake cakes, all kinds of cakes and pastries." He added that his wife also loved to cook, but above all, "her creative abilities seemed to be at their best with the baked goods."

Bordenabe also is survived by her mother, two sisters and two brothers, all New Jersey residents.

Krystine Bordenabe was a generous woman--but not when it came to closet space. One day she was cleaning out the bedroom closet and decided to toss one of her husband's two pairs of dress shoes. "Well, we needed the room," she explained to him later, ignoring the fact that the closet held 40 pairs of her own shoes. Her family never let her live down the episode, which summed up the fun-loving yet stubborn character of the New Jersey woman.

She grew up in Jersey City. During her freshman year in high school, she met a boy named Alfredo. They dated for a while, then fell out of touch. Ten years later, they met again at a soccer game.

"It was kind of like we never really went our own way," said Alfredo Bordenabe. "We just hit it off just the first day. We were engaged within a year, and everything sailed smoothly."

Krystine had a job as a sales assistant at investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, which had offices in the World Trade Center. But she was going to leave soon: She was eight months' pregnant with her second child (she had a 13-year-old son from a prior marriage) and planned to become a stay-at-home mother. It would not only give her the chance to be with her children, but also the opportunity to spend more time in her kitchen. She was an expert chef and baker, creating signature birthday cakes.

She made one covered with frosting flowers for the husband of her sister-in-law, Danielle Bordenabe, who said that gesture was typical.

"She gave to everyone," she said. "She was helpful. Anything you needed, you could go to her and she'd take care of it. No matter what it took, she would do it for you."