Devastated after her home collapsed in the aftermath of Sunday’s deadly flooding in Connecticut, Randi Marcucio received heartwarming news this week that eased her despair.
Sonograms of Marcucio’s now-3-year-old son, which had washed away in a swollen brook next to her home in Oxford, were found about 30 miles away on a beach in Westport and returned to her on Wednesday.
“Honestly, it felt like holding a piece of my heart, a piece of my soul,” said Marcucio, an emergency room nurse, during a phone interview. “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, discovered what appeared to be a photo in the water while walking with a friend along Compo Beach in Westport on Monday. On closer inspection, Lewis realized it was two sonograms on a single piece of paper bearing Marcucio’s name. After looking up the name and learning of Marcucio’s home collapse, Lewis contacted WVIT-TV. The station captured the moment Lewis met Marcucio near the debris of her collapsed house to return 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 clutched the sonograms to her heart. “That’s him. Thank you,” Marcucio said before embracing Lewis. “That’s incredible. What are the chances?”
Oxford is an inland town along the Housatonic River, about 20 miles north of where the river empties into Long Island Sound between Stratford and Milford. From there, it’s another 15 miles west to Compo Beach. The brook next to Marcucio’s home runs into the Housatonic.
When over a foot of rain fell Sunday, it transformed the normally calm brook into a raging river, eroding a significant portion of the land beneath Marcucio’s home. Her son, Rhylee, was with her parents at the time, and Marcucio stayed the night with neighbors. The house, which she had bought two years ago on Mother’s Day, collapsed the following day, captured on video by a neighbor while Marcucio wasn’t there.
She considers herself lucky. The storm wreaked havoc on nearby towns, washing out bridges, flooding homes and businesses, and prompting numerous rescues. Two women died after being swept away by floodwaters in different incidents in Oxford.
Marcucio has been overwhelmed by the support from people in town and across the country. A GoFundMe page has raised about $157,000 for her and her son. A developer is offering them a condo to stay in for a year. Donations of clothes and food have also been abundant. She expressed gratitude to so many, including local construction company workers and Oxford public works crews.
Marcucio spoke with an insurance adjuster and believes her policy will likely not cover the destruction of her home, as it wasn’t in a flood zone and she didn’t have flood insurance. With most of the land her house was on now gone, rebuilding seems unlikely. She hasn’t had much time to think about the future.
The sonograms were among the few items she was able to recover, and they weren’t packed or in a plastic bag. She hadn’t anticipated the house collapsing and didn’t think to remove important items, though she did manage to retrieve her son’s teddy bear the night before. Priceless mementos of her mother, who passed away 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 said. “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.”
