Fidel Sanchez-Flores told his niece last week to “pray really hard” because he had a feeling that “something is approaching,” his family said.

And he was unusually quiet Tuesday night, telling his wife, Vielka Molinar, that he loved her and would keep loving her after death. She said she asked him why he said that. He replied that he didn’t know.

She said she felt uneasy on her way to work as a nurse Wednesday morning. Her worries grew when her husband didn’t answer his phone that afternoon.

On Wednesday afternoon, the 52-year-old former Marine was clearing away ice and snow when he crashed through the Plexiglas roof of the IDS Center’s Crystal Court and fell about three stories to his death.

His daughter, Vielka Sanchez, 25, said Thursday that he had been removing snow from the tiered roof over the building’s atrium for the past few days.

“I had spoken to him two nights ago, and asked him, ‘Is it safe up there?'” Vielka Sanchez recalled. Her father assured her that he always wore his safety harness, explaining that “to fall from there would be really bad.”

Sanchez-Flores was wearing the harness when he fell, but it remained unclear Thursday if it was attached to anything. Vielka Sanchez said her father had worked in construction for 20 years, and “was very cautious about all his work.”

James Honerman, spokesman for Minnesota OSHA, said it could take “quite some time” before the agency issues its official report on his death.

Jim Durda, vice president and general manager of Inland American Office Management LLC, which manages the IDS Center, said Sanchez-Flores’ employer, Columbia Building Services, has been cleaning the IDS Center for more than 35 years without incident.

In 2004, the company was cited for a “non-serious” violation for failing to provide window washers with a device that measures wind velocities, Minnesota OSHA records show.

Sanchez-Flores had been working for the company since last spring, according to his family, and his projects included window washing and clearing snow.

He and Molinar grew up together in Panama. His wife said he moved to the United States in 1976 and served in the Marine Corps for about 12 years. He lived in New York for about 15 years and Puerto Rico for a year, doing construction work in both places. He joined his family in Minnesota last year.

Until Wednesday, 2007 had been a good year for Sanchez-Flores. He bought a house in West St. Paul, celebrated the birth of his second grandchild and remarried Molinar after a 20-year separation.

His daughter said the night before he died, he told his wife “that he loved her, and that even if he died that day, he would die happy.”

Sanchez-Flores also had a 16-year-old daughter, Elanis, who shared his love for basketball, and family members said he never missed her games.

Vielka Sanchez said she was grateful for those who came to her father’s aid when he fell.

“I’m just glad he didn’t die alone,” she said through her tears. “You know it couldn’t be any of us, but it was somebody.”

His widow said she wasn’t blaming anyone at this point, as her grief was too overwhelming.

“I see him walking around with a big smile, just joking,” she said. “He enjoyed life.”