Remember the victims of the destroyed building in Miami

In a simple ceremony, at 01:22 local time (5:22 GMT), at the same time the building collapsed on June 24, 2021, Miami-Father, the first torch was lit on the land where the apartment is located.

Then the numbers of the victims were read one by one, after which a new, smaller torch was lit, lighting the night in what now looks like a construction site, but a year ago it housed a 12-storey building. crashed for unknown reasons.

Relatives gathered and hugged around the torches commemorating this memorial and memorial fire, and gazed into the huge hole where the Champlain Towers South building, built in 1981, stood just over a year ago.

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“A little miracle”

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Photo: EFE.

Among those present was José Antonio González, father of 44-year-old Édgar González, who disappeared that night.

José Antonio told EFE that there hasn’t been a day that he doesn’t remember his son and that “the family was very bad emotionally”.

And although it was the night his son died, a “little miracle” took place.

His 44-year-old daughter-in-law Angela and 16-year-old granddaughter Deven left the building alive but suffered serious injuries that cost them their recovery.

The three had been watching horror movies late. They were in the same bed when Angela was startled by the noise, just in time to pull her daughter to the bedroom door.

As they left the room, they fell from the ninth floor to the fifth floor. A short time later, the 904 flat in which they lived had completely disappeared.

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José Antonio explained that you will not find any of the very unique people you will find in the part that demolished this building on the beach. The restaurant was demolished weeks later.

The other, Jonah Handler, a young man of 15 at the time, was at the ceremony tonight to commemorate his mother, Stacie Dawn Fang, who died exactly one year ago today.

A reservation will also be received right at the end of the ceremony, next to Collins Avenue connecting Surfside to Miami Beach, which will mark the next three weeks as the victims need rescue workers to restore the restaurants. last victim, Estelle Hedaya.

A few yards away and “Fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters. On June 24, 2021, 98 people were killed. With the solemn title “Forever in our hearts,” a banner listing 98 victims, many of them Latin descent, borders the site of the tragedy.

Despite being close to the family of Silvana López Moreira, Paraguay’s first lady, she lost her sister, brother-in-law and three children in the tragedy. , Luis Pettengill.

souvenir messages

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Once inside, in the space reserved for the private ceremony, family and friends stood in front of double rows of posts dedicated to each of the dead of the collapse, with sky-blue hearts and an engraved white ribbon.

On a dark night, unaided by the light from neighboring buildings that seemed empty tonight, a woman searched for the name of her relative with the light of her cell phone. He found it and gently ran his sober hand over the wood where the engraved number of his relative or friend was located.

A few others ventured to put up some monuments a few feet away, perhaps along with a memorial to a family member who died in the tragedy.

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Others knelt in front of the posts to pick up the marker (marker) that hung on a string above each post to write commemorative messages.

“My dear pars. I will always miss you. “Marcelo, your swineherd”, read one of these inscriptions in front of the entrance to the memorial service for the victims, which will take place this Friday morning. By Jill Biden, US First Lady.

The 84-year-old Cuban doctor José Antonio is also clear about this. You don’t want to be here today.

“I would like to go myself, not my son,” she said sadly.