By FAITH E. PINHO | Los Angeles Times | Published: March 13, 2021 LOS ANGELES (Tribune News Service) She had been drifting in the cold Pacific water for a night and most of a day. Kept afloat by her orange life jacket and the bow of her family s capsized boat, 9-year-old Desireé Rodriguez had watched helplessly as one family member after another let go of life. First her mother began foaming at the mouth and then went still. Her 5-year-old sister died soon after. Her uncle went next, followed by her aunt. Now she was alone, with no idea where her father was. He d been at the helm during what started as a routine fishing excursion on the family s boat. Soon after it flipped over, miles from land, he had insisted on trying to swim for help through the dark and thick fog.
35 years ago, boaters saved girl, 9, after her entire family died at sea; now, they meet again
Updated Mar 13, 2021;
Posted Mar 13, 2021
Desireé Rodriguez Campuzano in San Pedro, California on Feb. 7, 2021. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)TNS
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By Faith E. Pinho, Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES She had been drifting in the cold Pacific water for a night and most of a day.
Kept afloat by her orange life jacket and the bow of her family’s capsized boat, 9-year-old Desireé Rodriguez had watched helplessly as one family member after another let go of life.
First her mother began foaming at the mouth and then went still. Her 5-year-old sister died soon after. Her uncle went next, followed by her aunt.
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She had been drifting in the cold Pacific water for a night and most of a day.
Kept afloat by her orange life jacket and the bow of her family’s capsized boat, 9-year-old Desireé Rodriguez had watched helplessly as one family member after another let go of life.
First her mother began foaming at the mouth and then went still. Her 5-year-old sister died soon after. Her uncle went next, followed by her aunt.
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Now she was alone, with no idea where her father was. He’d been at the helm during what started as a routine fishing excursion on the family’s boat. Soon after it flipped over, miles from land, he had insisted on trying to swim for help through the dark and thick fog.
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Dublin-born artist Sean Scully is known worldwide for his abstract paintings of blocks and stripes of bold colour. You can see his work in the Tate, the Guggenheim, and the National Gallery of Ireland, among many other prestigious collections. He was brought up in what he describes as “abject poverty” and his paintings now fetch more than a million pounds; he and his wife and son fly back and forth between two homes, one south of Munich and one in New York.
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