Two sisters worked and vanished together

They are together in a photograph affixed to a fence in Manhattan's Union Square Park, amid candles and flowers and the photocopied hopes of thousands.

Lisa and Samantha Egan, who grew up in Rocky Point, N.Y., and always seemed inseparable, had posed for the photo for a Mother's Day present — back to back and smiling, so full of life.

They even worked together. Lisa, always looking out for her little sister, had gotten Samantha a job a few months back with Cantor Fitzgerald, on the 104th floor of Tower One at the World Trade Center, where Lisa had been a human-resources administrator for four years.

Last week, when terrorists plunged a jetliner into the silver skyscraper, Lisa and Samantha were together, and joined the ranks of the missing.

"That's just the way they were, always laughing, always fun, but very serious, very astute, very smart," said their great-aunt, Honey Martin, of Glen Cove, N.Y. "If one had an opportunity to get out, she would not leave without the other."

They were avid athletes. Lisa, who excelled at volleyball, was preparing to run in a marathon. Samantha enjoyed in-line skating.

Their grandmother, Gloria Egan of Brooklyn, said that Lisa, 31, attended Fairleigh Dickinson University. The school's provost said Lisa is still remembered and well-liked on the university's Madison, N.J., campus, eight years after she earned a master's degree in business administration.

Samantha, 24, attended college in upstate New York and did charitable work before joining her sister at Cantor Fitzgerald. She had planned to return to school.

Their younger brother, Brendan, a marine, drove from California to be with the family.

"He is so beside himself he burst into tears," Martin said. "He's so hard hit, you would have to know them to know how close they all are." Martin said the family narrowly avoided having even more misfortune befall them. A cousin of the sisters, William Martin, also worked at the World Trade Center. He retired four days before the disaster.