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Ronald Breitweiser: A Ring From a Sweetheart

 

Ronald and Kristen Breitweiser were married five years ago in bathing suits and bare feet "on a little sand spit in the middle of nowhere," Mrs. Breitweiser recalled. After years of marriage, the two continued to act like newlyweds. Each weekday, Mr. Breitweiser, 39, would return from his job as a senior vice president at Fiduciary Trust International at 2 World Trade Center, sit on the living room couch in Middletown Township, N.J., and snuggle with his wife for a few minutes. They called each other "Sweets."

"I don't think we ever used our real names," recalled Mrs. Breitweiser, who was a lawyer before she gave up her job to raise their daughter, Caroline, who is now 2 and nicknamed Bug, after the way she used to crawl.

When Caroline woke up at night, Mr. Breitweiser would rub her back until she fell asleep. Sometimes he chased the family's golden retriever, Sam, to make her giggle. On Sept. 8, the family went to a nearby beach at Sandy Hook. Mr. Breitweiser pointed to two gray rectangles in the distance. "Look, that's where Daddy works," he said.

Some of Mr. Breitweiser's remains, including his wedding ring, were recovered from ground zero in October. The authorities gave Mrs.Breitweiser her husband's ring, which she wears on her right hand. Her own wedding ring stays where it was, on her left.

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From "Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times  

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March 1, 2003

Dear Mrs. Breitweiser:   I read an article in Vanity Fair about how you prayed that Ron did not see his own death and that you knew he immediately burned to ashes and floated up to the sky.  I wrote a poem titled, A Spiritual Vision of 911.  I want to share it with you.   I pray that God give you and Caroline strength in this difficult time.   Bernice Latour  

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A Spiritual Vision of 9-11

 

God wept that day,

 

wept because choice was misused by manipulation, abuse and control

at the hands of sick minds,

For God gifted us with a Freedom.

A Freedom called "Choice".

 

Yes, God wept that day,

 

wept because man, made in His own Image and Likeness,

used Choice to force brutal destiny on thousands of

people from all walks of life.

Yet these people, so different from one another,

were united in holding our world together.

Choice of a few resulted in sacrifices of so many loved ones only guilty of innocence.

 

What did the burning towers look like with countless souls

fleeing from the human furnaces?

 

Amid the skies of atomic black smoke from the collapsing walls of the firing towers,

souls swiftly fled from their bodies ascending into the welcoming Hands of God.

 

Were they allowed to say goodbye to loved ones

in a miraculous way only God could design?

Were souls escorted through the fires and smoke by way of Angels into the

the galaxy like shooting stars heading Home to Our Lord?

Were the cries of their souls heard in the Heavens when

they saw the towers evaporate to rubble and ashes?

How did God handle Judgment of so many souls at once?

 

I know that God, in His mystic way unknown to man,

was visually present before each of them

to replace their fright with courage,

to replace their cries with comfort, and

to replace the pain of those last moments of such a violent departure from earth

with an instant vision of that Glory to the Kingdom of God.

 

By God's infinite mind and mystic power

His spiritual plan for each soul was already designed,

for their names were written on the gates of His Kingdom.

 

 

by

Bernice Latour

219 Wickhamford Way

Houston, Texas 77015

(713) 455-1481

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Published © 2002 Bernice Latour