As details emerged about the four New Yorkers killed in Sunday’s horrific Metro North train derailment, a friend of one of them was struck by the similarities between the victims.
“I looked at some of the other folks that perished – it’s almost like they’re connected to the same soul, somehow,” said John Zubic, who lost his lifelong friend, Jim Lovell, in the horrific wreck.
“There’s a connection.”
Freelance audio and production designer Lovell, 58, was known in upstate Cold Spring as a doting dad, helpful neighbor and, as Zubic, 61, put it: “one of the people who watched your back.”
“Nobody could say a bad word about him. He never said a bad word about anybody … he was a really good guy.”
The same could be said for Lovell’s fellow victims, James Ferrari, 59; Donna Smith, 54; and Kisook Ahn, 35, their families and friends said.
“He was a wonderful husband, a wonderful daddy,” a weeping Francie Ferrari said of her husband and father of their 20-year-old daughter, Rebecca.
A Manhattan building superintendent, Ferrari, his wife said, was a simple man who filled her life with love – and always worked on Sunday to make extra money.
“I loved him very much. He gave me a good life,” the widow said of the Bronx-born Ferrari. “He gave me everything I need.”
The couple met more than 20 years ago at an event for singles in Connecticut, shortly after Francie arrived in the US from her native Brazil.
“I barely spoke English. We met and he asked me to go out with him and gave me his phone number, I said I don’t think so, I hardly spoke English,” she recalled, smiling through tears at their Montrose home. ‘’He said you call me after seven days. And I did call in seven days and he called back. And after I met him it’s been wonderful.”
They married May 23, 1992. Francie lovingly nicknamed her husband “Gato,” cat in Portuguese.
“In Brazil we give a name when you love somebody…he was an angel,” Francie said. ““Jimmy was a very simple man. Everything satisfied him. He loved good food. He loved being with the family. His love made us happy. He was wonderful. I couldn’t ask for someone better than him, he was the best.”
Neighbor Terrence Ellis recounted how Ferrari worked to buy a home for his family away from the city.
“It was a dream to own their own house, their own piece of property with a white picket fence,” Ellis said. “He took great pride in everything up here and taking care of the property and his wife and his daughter. His family meant the world to him. He was a hardworking man, great friend, great neighbor. We just ask that you keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers.”
Across the Hudson River in Newburgh, longtime paralegal Donna Smith was a helpful, enthusiastic community booster. She was chaplain and part of the women’s auxillary at the Cronomer Valley Fire Department, mentored inner-city girls in Newburgh, worked with Habitat for Humanity, sang in her church choir and led a local Girl Scout troop for 32 years, running the annual cookie sale.
Donna’s boss, Maureen Crush, of Fishkill law firm deRamon Crush, described Smith as “very quiet’ about her personal life and achievements, and said she learned more about her after nominating Smith for a local woman’s achievement award. The winner was slated to be chosen this week.
Smith and her younger sister, Linda, were raised in the area, and remained each others’ best friend as adults. They were so close that Donna would bring her sibling to law firm’s annual holiday.
“We’d say bring your significant other, and she’d bring her sister. They were just incredibly close,” recalled Roderick deRamon.
The sisters had season box tickets to the local baseball team, the Hudson Valley Renegades, and Linda was helping Donna with her recent home renovation.
“This was the happiest I’ve seen her. Of all the years I’ve known her, she was coming into her own,” said Crush, of Donna’s many accomplishments. “She was really enjoying life right now. She was happy, content.”
The siblings celebrated Thanksgiving together, spending the holiday with their uncle, the only family member they had left.
Donna and Linda had been together on the train Sunday, enroute to Manhattan where Linda was slated to perform Handel’s “Messiah” with her choral group.
“In one way, I’m glad she was with her sister. But in another way, it’s got to be the worst tragedy — they traveled together, they vacationed together. They were inseparable.
“I know this is very devastating to Linda.”
The Renegades baseball club paid tribute to Donna on its Facebook page Monday, writing: `‘The Hudson Valley Renegades lost one of our own yesterday morning. We extend our thoughts and prayers to the Smith Family as we celebrate the life of Donna Smith. Thank you for all the wonderful memories as we will miss seeing your smiling face at Dutchess Stadium.’’
The Cronomer Valley Fire Department asked for prayers for the sisters. “Two members of the Cronomer Valley Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary were on the train that derailed in the Bronx Linda and her sister Donna Smith,” it said in a statement. “Linda was treated and released from the hospital. Donna has passed away our hearts and prayers are with Linda and her family during this unfortunate accident.’’
“In a time of need, we are a big family and we will go over and beyond for them.’’
In Ossining and Queens Monday, friends and co-workers of Kisook Ahn — a registered nurse who came to the US just a few years ago and was waiting to get her green card – recalled her friendly, loving nature.
When the train crashed, Ahn had been on her way home to the Woodside apartment she shares with roomates, after working a night shift taking care of acutely ill kids at the Sunshine Children’s Home and Rehab Center in Ossining.
Former colleagues described Ahn as “sunny,” “always smiling” and “very dedicated to taking care of those babies.’’
Center administrator Linda Mosiello said the staff was still reeling from the news.
After hearing about the derailment and knowing Ahn was on the train, “two of the nurses went hospital to hospital, looking for her yesterday,’’ Mosiello told the Wall Street Journal.
“We are all just devastated. She was just loved and adored by all of the nurses and children here.’’
Born in South Korea, Ahn came to the US in 2008, earning both her bachelor’s degree and a master’s in nursing at Lehman College.
She worked at Woodhull Hospital before being hired at Sunshine, where she was one of a tight-knit group of Korean nurses doting on their young charges.
Ahn worked mainly with the youngest patients, in the nursery, and considered the children part of her extended family, colleagues said.
Ahn’s Facebook page features a photo of a little girl, “Abigail,” to whom Ahn had grown close.
Meanwhile, Jim Lovell’s son, teeanged son, Finn, Monday asked that his dad not be remembered only as “a victim.’’
“I’m not the son of a victim. My dad was so much more than that,’’ the 17-year-old said. “I don’t want him to go down in history as just someone who died.’’
“He was just the best father I could ever ask for … anything I wanted to do with my life, he was right there beside me. Not only was he my father, he was one of my closest friends.’’
“It still feels unreal to me,” the younger Lovell said. “It feels like a surreal nightmare.’’