TIRANA, June 2 – An Albanian construction worker, killed in Friday’s New York City crane collapse, worked seven days a week trying to raise enough money to bring his ailing parents from Albania to the United States for medical help.
Ramadan Kurtaj, 28, according to relatives, lived for his family and his native country.
He fought as a soldier in the 1990s ethnic war in Kosovo, dealt with homesickness by watching Albanian movies, and even used a recording of his uncle singing a traditional folk song as his ring tone.
Now Kurtaj will make his final journey home, when his body is flown to Albania.
Kurtaj was killed Friday when a crane on East 91st Street snapped. Two construction workers, Kurtaj and Donald Leo, 30, a soon-to-be wed construction worker from Staten Island, were killed.
Albanian worker killed in NY accident to be returned for burial
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