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Mike Stratton was asleep when he was awakened by the ringing of his phone.
It was Cassondra Billedeau-Stratton, his wife, who was screaming desperately as the apartment building she was in in Miami was shaking.
He told her that from his balcony he could see how the ground around the pool had collapsed leaving a hole.
Then the phone line was cut.
“It was 1:30 am. I’ll never, ever forget it,” Mike said.
Cassondra is one of the 98 dead which left the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South building at 8777 Collins Avenue in Surfside.
This morning of June 24, something that seemed unimaginable happened: a building facing the sea was swallowed up by the earth.
And although some of the occupants managed to escape with their lives, Cassie, as her family and friends call her, was not so fortunate.
His remains were found under the rubble by rescue teams who tried for weeks to find signs of life.
“I wish I hadn’t been there that night” tells her sister Ashley Dean, from New Orleans, in dialogue with BBC Mundo.
“She has always traveled. She had recently been to New York and a few days after the collapse she was going to come home. But she never came.”
Cassie was a model. Since she loved to travel so much, she created a blog called “Chic Living 365”, where she posted photos and texts about beauty, fashion and lifestyle in her favorite places.
During her lifetime, she also worked as an interior designer, actress and instructor of Pilates, an activity which in recent times had become one of her great passions.
She met her husband in New York and they got married five years ago.
“Cassie and Mike started spending more and more time in Miami, especially with the pandemic. They moved into apartment 410, where they had a great view, but she used to say she had felt small tremors in the apartment when they started to build a building in the condominium on the land side, ”says her sister.
They had spent a few days together in the apartment, until Mike left because he had to go to Washington DC.
They said goodbye without imagining that this would be the last time they would be together.
More than three months have passed since the tragedy.
The remains of the building that still existed were demolished and where the Champlain South Towers building once stood, there is now a vacant lot facing the sea.
A multi-million dollar prize … and a “holy” place
Land that is worth tens of millions of dollars, but which for some families of victims has a “sacred” character.
The debate over the fate of the 1.88 acres (0.7 hectares) has brought to the table the conflicting interests of some of the families of the victims, who have lost loved ones, and of the owners, who have lost their homes, some of whom have lost their loved ones. survived the horror of that night.
Miami-Dade County Judge Michael Hanzman, who oversees the numerous legal claims related to the case, this Thursday approved the sale of the land.
The court will use the money to compensate the owners of the 136 destroyed apartments and the families affected by the tragedy.
DAMAC Properties, a real estate company based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, has already offered US $ 120 million for the land to build luxury apartments.
However, the court accepts other competitive offers.
This is why some families of the victims are currently campaigning for donors to agree to purchase the land to prevent real estate development from taking place.
These families want a memorial to be built instead of a building to honor their dead.
“The blood of my sister and the 97 other victims runs like veins on this ground”said Cassondra Billedeau-Stratton’s sister, Ashley Dean.
“I imagine a memorial with gardens and waterfalls. A place that Cassie herself would visit. A place where she could stand where she lost her life.”
Dean is open to the possibility of finding some sort of middle ground that allows for the construction of a memorial and, at the same time, a residential building on the site.
But not everyone agrees with this alternative.
Some families believe the only viable option is to build a memorial that will occupy the entire land where the landslide occurred, which is the 1.88 acres.
“In the United States, we don’t build on the bodies of the dead,” Rabbi Lisa Shrem says in dialogue with BBC Mundo.
She lost her best friend, Estelle Hedaya, the last identified victim in the landslide, 33 days after the landslide.
“We did not receive whole bodies. What we did receive were small pieces of their bodies. It means the rest is on this earth, probably in the form of ashes.”
“According to Jewish law, it is very important that the body is respected as well as the soul. These laws do not allow us to build on graves. “
Shrem is leading the effort to raise the funds needed to purchase the land by one person or a group of people to build the memorial.
“We are seeking public and private funds. We call on everyone from the President of the United States to the Governor of Florida, generous entrepreneurs, philanthropists, corporations, anyone who can help.”
Shrem has traveled from New York to Surfside to support the cause of those who do not resign themselves to seeing a new building at the scene of the tragedy.
Monica Iken-Murphy too, whose husband died in the Twin Towers attacks in September 2011.
She worked on the construction of the memorial which now stands where the towers collapsed and now supports the families of the victims of the Surfside collapse.
“I never got my husband’s remains And that’s one of the reasons why building a memorial was so important in my life. ”
“I understand the suffering they are going through and that is why I want to help them,” he told BBC Mundo.
In the New York attacks and the collapse of the Champlain South Towers, explains Iken-Murphy, there were “horrible deaths”.
“In both cases, people have died from evil acts. Some victims of terrorism, others victims of corruption.
“I have been through the same nightmare they are experiencing now. We are going to build a memorial in the same place and not elsewhere.”
The problem is, if they do not get the necessary funds, everything indicates that the sale of the land to a real estate developer will be done.
“I understand that it is difficult for families to accept what the judge said,” said Charles Burkett, Mayor of Surfside, in dialogue with BBC Mundo.
“But I think the property is going to be sold and that a real estate company will build a building in this place “.
For now, “I don’t know where the memorial will be located.”
However, family members remain hopeful.
“There is enough land for a good building and enough land for a beautiful memorial,” notes Cassie’s sister.
“There is enough land for everyone to find peace”. His greatest wish is for a generous donor to appear.
“Cassie was my little sister. She was a spiritual woman who loved the universe and was full of energy. I wish a memorial to the very place where she died. Everything is now in the hands of God.”
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