February 2, 2005 -- ON THE morning before hero firefighter John Bellew crashed to his death while jumping to save himself from a blazing building, he admitted to a little white lie.
"Every day before he went to work, I would say to him, 'Be careful and promise you'll come home to me,' " said his wife, Eileen Bellew, through tears.
"We kissed and he left the house but he returned 15 minutes later, saying he was waiting for the car to heat up.
"Then he said, 'I can't tell a lie, I came back for another kiss. Anything for another kiss.' "
This was a marriage of constant romance that ended in a frightening inferno and a desperate bid to escape a grisly death.
Last night, Eileen was visited by firefighter Brendan Cawley, 31, who miraculously escaped death after crashing to the pavement.
And last night, Cawley remembered his brothers who died in the fall.
Brendan spent three private hours with Eileen to give her details of that terrible Sunday morning, Jan. 23, when his colleagues Bellew, 37, of Ladder Co. 27, and Lt. Curtis Meyran, 46, of Battalion 26 died.
Jeffrey Cool, 37, and Joseph DiBernardo, 34; and Eugene Stolowski, 33, were critically injured.
On the same fateful "Black Sunday," Richard Sclafani, 37, died in a fire in Brooklyn.
Eileen was feeding her little 5-month-old, Kieran - one of their four beautiful children - while Brendan talked to her and tried to share the burden of grief.
"He was so supportive and like all of them, so brave," she said later.
"And it was just wonderful to know that my husband died among professionals who were calm and collected, nothing crazy."
Brendan added, "I will do anything for Eileen for as long as I can."
Eileen, a schoolteacher, is keenly aware of her family's loss
