Abdu Malahi, Age 37

 “Abdu saved my life. Because we were told not to evacuate the hotel by management via the intercom system (before the intercom system was destroyed by the second plane crash), Abdu took it upon himself to alert the remaining guests that they must leave. I was waiting in my room when I heard him shouting in the hallway. I opened the door, and he told me I must leave immediately. He escorted me to the stairways before continuing on to save other guests. He is constantly in my thoughts. He is my guardian angel. I love this man whom I only met once. It is still hard for me to comprehend his sacrifice for strangers. Abdu was a very special man, indeed.

–Donn Monroe

We so often hear about the heroes in uniform that were running up stairs to help victims flee while others ran down.  And they, of course, are incredibly worthy of our love and respect.  But we forget, sometimes, those good, good people who helped others as well until their final breaths.

Abdu Malahi was one such man.

Raised in Yemen, Abdu loved music and played keys in a band before becoming the audi0-visual engineer at the Marriott Hotel.

He was known among colleagues as being incredibly polite, and only opening up with his wife and two sons, who he was trying to get visas for so that they could join him from Yemen before the September 11th attacks.  But his formality also garnered him a great deal of respect and he was well liked amongst coworkers and friends.

When the towers were struck, Abdu risked his own life to help save the lives of others.  There is little about this incredibly generous man on the internet, but I am sure that he lives on in the hearts of his family and the many people whose lives he saved by giving up his own.

This tribute was written as part of Project 2996.  I picked the first six names on the list who had not been written yet, and am posting one every day in the week leading up to September 11th, 2011.  To read my initial post on this organization and to donate to The Feel Good Foundation, an advocacy group for first responders affected by serving on September 11th, please CLICK HERE.

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