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Charlotte Amalie
Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesGRIEVING PARENTS FIND NYC 'FULL OF GOOD PEOPLE'

GRIEVING PARENTS FIND NYC 'FULL OF GOOD PEOPLE'

Editor's note: Here is a message that Ruth and Bob Butler, who operate the Sea Trekin' helmet-dive activity at the Coral World Marine Park, recently e-mailed to friends and family after efforts to find their son in New York failed. Ruth, who wrote the letter, also is Coral World's public relations director. They agreed to allow the Source to publish it.
Dear Friends,
Butler and I have returned to St. Thomas from New York. Someone like me, who lived there my whole life, still finds it a real small town, full of good people willing to help us in this horror movie.
Our sons Jason and Jonathan and Christian's father-in-law Peter and brother-in law Dennis spent days looking for Christian in triage and medical centers. We looked at every "in" we had in New York and were able to find many. Jason and Jon were allowed to look at the living "John Doe's" — alive but unidentifiable.
Christian's father-in-law is a famous architect whom I asked for the reality of the situation. He said I didn't want to know the truth. I'm just an old reporter who looked at the pictures and figured out that our boy was gone quickly in the world's worst immolation. He leaves the most beautiful wife, Jane, and three children: Max, 8, Morgan, 5, and Samuel, 3.
We will be flying back to New York on Monday for a celebration of Christian's life on Tuesday. He was an assistant vice president at Cantor Fitzgerald, which had offices on floors 100-105 at the World Trade Center. But that is not who he was. He was a scholar and an athlete who grew a littler fatter to become a community and philanthropic man.
I have spent a lifetime making money on words. They fail me. They are meaningless. For all of you who are a part of our lives, your words mean everything.
God bless us all.
Butler and Ruth
Responses may be e-mailed to source@viaccess.net.

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