Devastated after her home collapsed in the aftermath of Sunday's deadly flooding in Connecticut, Randi Marcucio got some good news this week that warmed her heart and eased her despair.
Sonograms of the single mom's now-3-year-old son that washed away in the swollen brook next to her home in Oxford were found some 30 miles away on a beach in Westport and returned to her Wednesday.
“Honestly, it felt like holding a piece of my heart, a piece of my soul," Marcucio, an emergency room nurse, told The Associated Press in a phone interview Wednesday evening. “Seeing pictures of your child in your womb, and suffering such a great loss, there are no words. I don't know how to describe it.”
A stranger, Nancy Lewis, was walking with a friend along Compo Beach in Westport on Monday when she saw what looked like a photo in the water. She picked it up and saw there were two sonograms on a single piece of paper with Marcucio's name on it.
She looked up the name and was heartbroken when she saw news of of Marcucio's home collapsing. Lewis contacted WVIT-TV, which recorded Lewis meeting Marcucio near the collapsed house to give her the sonograms.
“I saw the devastation and read your story — a single mom, emergency room nurse,” Lewis told Marcucio. “I figured you were somebody who’s always caring for other people and I just wanted to see if there was anything that I could do for you, apart from this little sonogram that I found.”
Marcucio looked at the sonograms and held them to her heart.
“That’s him. Thank you,” Marcucio said before hugging Lewis. "That’s incredible. What are the chances?”
Oxford is an inland town along the Housatonic River, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of where the river empties into Long Island Sound between Stratford and Milford. It's another 15 miles (24 kilometers) west to Compo Beach. The brook next to Marcucio's home runs into the Housatonic.
When a foot or more of rain fell Sunday, it turned the normally tranquil brook into a raging river and washed away a good chunk of the land under Marcucio's home. Her son, Rhylee, was staying with her parents at the time. Marcucio left her house and stayed the night with neighbors.
The house she bought two years ago on Mother's Day collapsed the next day — a moment caught on video by a neighbor when Marcucio wasn't there.
She considers herself lucky. The storm wreaked havoc on towns in the area, washing out bridges, flooding homes and businesses and leading to numerous rescues. Two women died after being swept away by floodwaters elsewhere in Oxford in different incidents.
Marcucio has been overwhelmed by the support of so many people, in town and around the country. A GoFundMe page has raised about $167,000 for her and her son as of Friday. A developer is letting them stay in one of his condos for a year. Donations of clothes and food have poured in. She said she wants to thank so many people, including local construction company workers and Oxford public works crews.
Marcucio said she spoke with an insurance adjuster, and it appears there's little chance the destruction of her home will be covered by her policy. Her home wasn't in a flood zone and she did not have, or think she needed, flood insurance. Most of the land her house sat on is gone, so she doesn't think she can rebuild. She hasn't had a lot of time to think about the future.
The sonograms were not boxed up or in a plastic bag. They're among the few belongings she was able to recoup. She didn't think the house was going to collapse and didn't believe she needed to remove important items. But she did get her son's teddy bear out the night before. Priceless mementos of her mother, who died when she was 12, are gone, including a hairbrush and a bottle of perfume.
“Unfortunately, there was loss of life in my community, so I cannot complain about the tangible items that were lost,” she told the AP. “The support from the community is just moving me forward. I haven’t really had the processing time or the grieving time. It’s just really survival mode and things along those lines at this point.”
