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From Wine, a Beginning

Love blossomed over crushed grapes.

Blake Allison was a wine appreciation instructor at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education in Massachusetts. His future wife, Anna, was a student. "She took a couple of courses before we went out," said Mr. Allison, a professional wine- taster. "I was slow to get the hint."

Anna S. Allison was on the plane that struck 1 World Trade Center. She was on her way to visit a client in Los Angeles.

Mrs. Allison was an independent, spirited adventurer, who loved to travel, Mr. Allison said. Last year, she started her own company, A2 Software Solutions in Boston, where she and her husband lived.

When they "could swing it," they would travel together, Mr. Allison said. About 18 months ago, they went to France, visiting Paris and Alsace. They also toured Burgundy, where Beaujolais is produced, and Champagne, where the original Champagne is made. "Every day was a new opportunity for her," Mr. Allison said. "Because there were new opportunities, there was always hope of doing something good. That's the way she lived her life."

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on November 11, 2001.


When Anna Allison and her husband flew together, they held hands on takeoffs and landings, just in case.

But on Tuesday morning, she was supposed to fly alone, from Boston to Los Angeles for a business meeting. So Blake Allison drove his wife from their Stoneham, Mass., home to the airport, waited with her inside the terminal until he had to leave, said "I love you" and left for work.

A coworker told Blake Allison about the first plane crashing into the World Trade Center, the plane that he didn't know carried his wife. He turned on the radio and immediately heard the news of the second plane. He figured the planes must be from New York. He learned quickly they were from Boston.

"I knew immediately," said Blake Allison, who grew up in Lake Bluff.

Profile courtesy of THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE.