Seven years ago, Margaret and I bought our little Paradise by the Sea in Lake Como. Our plan is to move to the Shore full-time at some point. For now, however, we just spend our summer weekends (and occasional weekends throughout the year) there. I believe every word of what Jacques Cousteau said because I live them every day.
Lake Como (f/k/a South Belmar) is roughly 1 1/2 miles south of Avon-by-the-Sea. George J. Strauch made the four-hour round-trip daily from his home in Avon to his office at Aon, which office was located on the 99th floor of Two World Trade Center, where he worked as a National Practice Leader for Risk Control Consulting. Mr. Strauch, 53, and his wife, Virginia McWatters-Strauch, to whom he was married for twenty-seven years, were the proud parents of Hillary, who was twelve years old on the day her father died.
On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, he reached his office in Lower Manhattan by 7:30 a.m. as he typically did. He called his mom, Alma, who lived in Kearny. After One World Trade Center was struck by the first plane, he called Virginia. He told her that he was all right. Tragically, his situation was changed irrevocably when the second plane practically bisected Two World Trade Center, impacting the building many floors below Mr. Strauch's floor and making his escape from it impossible.
Two Fridays ago, Margaret and I had dinner at Avon Pavilion with our friends Mel and George Hagstoz. Although I have run through the Pavilion more times than I can count, until that evening I had never noticed the bench dedicated to George Strauch's memory.
His love for the sea, reciprocated by the place he lived, and memorialized. He shall be linked to the sea - and it to him - forever.
-AK
No comments:
Post a Comment