Being on time is generally part of the recipe for success in no matter what you do, but as the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, one Miami man is certain that being late was the key to his survival.
Norman Kluge should have been at Ground Zero bright and early on Sept. 11, scheduled to attend a breakfast seminar in the twin towers.
But he says fate, and his son, John, who was then in high school, stepped in.
"'Bashert' means it is what it is and it happens by what God wants and I guess it wasn’t my time," Kluge said. "I don’t want to think too much about how lucky I was, but I was pretty lucky."
"The day that my son missed the bus was the third day that week he had missed the bus," wife Robin Kluge said. "I asked Norm to take John to school that day and we actually argued about it on the front steps of our home because he didn’t want to miss his train."
Responsibility, and not being late, are strong values in the Kluge household, but John was late again on 9/11 and Norman had no choice but to drive him to class.
"That caused him to miss his regular train which brought him into Manhattan 42 minutes later than he normally would have arrived," Robin Kluge said.
By the time Norman got near the twin towers, they were on fire.
"Smoke, black smoke coming right at us and we were about three to four blocks away and we all started to jog, run," he said.
Many of Norman’s coworkers and friends were in the towers when the buildings imploded.
"When I was at one of their offices about a week before, a few of the coworkers were talking about 'I can’t go to the seminar, do you want to go?' he said. "The one in front of me said 'here take my ticket.'"
Norman made it out of his office a few blocks away and ultimately found a working phone where he let his wife know he was alright.
"All the people in our town lost people. Everybody lost somebody," Robin said.
The couple moved to South Florida years ago to run a collections agency after so many of their business clients in Manhattan perished. Today, the tardy son, John, works with them.
But after their experience, what do they think about being on time?
"You know, I still believe on being on time," Robin said. "The next time you can be late and be in the wrong place."
