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Almost Parents

Rahma Salie, of Sri Lankan descent, grew up in Japan. Michael Theodoridis, of Greek descent, grew up in Switzerland. She was a Muslim; he converted to Islam before they married in 1998. They had received some good news a few months earlier.

Ms. Salie, 28, a graduate of Wellesley College, was chief operating officer of Cinoni, and Mr. Theodoridis, 32, a graduate of Boston University, was a technology consultant in Cambridge, Mass. They lived on the outskirts of Boston and were passengers on American Airlines Flight 11 on Sept. 11, on their way to a wedding in California.

Abdullah Haydar worked for Mr. Theodoridis at I-Cube, and when they first met, he informed his boss that he needed to go to a mosque on Fridays at lunchtime. "He said, `Yeah, yeah I know,' but with a name like Michael Theodoridis, you would not necessarily expect that."

Mr. Haydar remembers that he seemed to serve as Mr. Theodoridis's conscience during Ramadan, when Muslims are supposed to fast unless they are traveling. "He'd be in Germany during Ramadan, drinking a Coke, and he'd be like, `No, no, I just got here on the flight, I'm not not fasting," Mr. Haydar said. "It was a friendly thing between us."

When Mr. Haydar last heard from him, Mr. Theodoridis told him how excited he was at the prospect of becoming a father. Ms. Salie was seven months' pregnant with their first child.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on July 14, 2002.