The beach angel

I took this picture in June of 2011

I loved this statue.

I thought of her as a guardian angel, watching over me, especially when I was on the beach alone for sunrise. 

After Sandy destroyed something like 80% of the homes in  Mantoloking, I hoped they had brought her in.  

When I saw the house amazingly survived, my hopes skyrocketed that my guardian angel had survived.

I'm not a very ballsy person. 

Back when I was 11, we had a house fire & I remember how upset my mother was by the "circus" in front of our house.  Because of that I never got into shooting peoples misery.  I took a few shots of businesses that had been destroyed, but that even bothered me, I wasn't going to take pictures of people homes.

But I put a 5x7 of this photo in my glove box with the intent on giving it to the owners if I ever saw them outside.

I haven't set foot on the beach in Mantoloking since October 26th or 27th, but every time I drive by this house I look to see if anyone is outside.

Today there was a guy outside and I figured what the heck, and I stopped.

I was sad to learn that the angel did not survive. 

I was even more saddened to learn that the spot were the angel lived was where the ashes of their son & daughter were buried.

I gave him the copy of the picture and my condolences.  

It's the stories like this that make Sandy suck even more all over again.