SURFSIDE, Fla. – There are so many incredible stories that have emerged from the rubble of what once was the Champlain Towers South.
One of those is the story of Edgar Gonzalez’s family.
He is among the missing.
His wife Angela and 16-year-old daughter Devon survived a fall from the ninth floor to the fifth floor in the collapse. The mom, with a broken pelvis, was able to save her daughter.
They are at Jackson Memorial Hospital recovering from their injuries
Adrianna Gonzalez Chi, Edgar’s sister, just took their mom Maria Comas de Gonzalez, to the memorial outside Champlain Towers South for the first time since the June 24 collapse.
Comas de Gonzalez said in Spanish that it’s not easy to accept that her son is not alive. She still has hope that he is living in that rubble.
Gonzalez Chi calls her brother “an amazing person. Very humble, very giving.”
So much has happened in the past two weeks. A difficult reality has set in now that it is no longer a search and rescue operation.
“It’s a little shocking,” Gonzalez Chi said. “My parents have owned this apartment since ’94.
There is pain and anger.
But we ask Gonzalez Chi if she can look at Devon and Angela and say that Edgar at least knows that they were saved.
“100%,” she said. “I’ve said that to them, and at the end of the day that is true. The fact that they’re in the hospital and recovering is in itself ... I mean look how many lives have been lost.
“Including my brother’s”