“He was starting to get closer to religion, closer to God. It’s like he knew this was coming.”
At 25, with a brand new bride and a job he was just beginning to learn, Joseph Rosa’s future seemed as bright as a summer morning.
But a day after Rosa was killed by a tragic elevator accident in a Bronx building, his wife couldn’t help but think that Rosa had been preparing for this moment.
He liked to laugh and joke, and they talked about plans they had. But he had a serious side, was introspective, even. Like he wanted to be ready when the time came.
Rosa and Karina Stepanova-Rosa were married in September in a Russian Orthodox church in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
He took his new path seriously, converting to his wife’s religion and getting baptized in her faith a month before the wedding, she said.
“He was starting to get closer to religion, closer to God,” the bride-turned-widow said. “It’s like he knew this was coming.”
Rosa was crushed to death Thursday by an elevator he was trying to repair in a Bronx apartment building, officials said.
Police sources said the mechanic’s apprentice was helping to repair an elevator at a building on E. Clarke Place near the Grand Concourse when the lift gave way and crushed him at the bottom of the shaft.
Among those grieving the most is Rosa’s brother, Antonio Rosa, 31. Antonio said his brother was the youngest of three boys, and attended Kingsborough Community College before going to Baruch College.
“It’s a tragedy,” Antonio said. “But we’re putting it in the hands of God. We’re all trying to keep the faith here, to see it as providence as opposed to tragedy.”
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him…
