The night of the disaster, the elder Elena was keeping her daughter company while her husband traveled in Central America. It was the kind of thing the two did all the time, as heads of a tight-knit brood.
Love characterized the two Elenas: love of education (both had been teachers); love of travel (both were world travelers); and above all, love of family.
“That was everything to them,” Rodriguez said. “They were best friends.”
The women fled their native Cuba for New York, then moved to Puerto Rico, where Chavez taught school during much of Blasser’s childhood.
In the 1970s, the family moved to Miami, where Blasser took her turn in front of the class at Miami-Dade elementary and middle schools, then becoming assistant principal at Zora Neale Hurston, Beckford/Richmond and Vineland elementary schools.
He was a mechanical engineer who later worked for consulting companies, the newspaper said.
The couple owned several properties together, including a cosmetics store in Miami, his daughter told the Daily Beast. He had a son and a daughter, while Beatriz Guerra, known as Betty, had two sons, the story said.
Betty Guerra spent much of her life working for the Avon cosmetics company. She had also been a math teacher at G. Holmes Braddock Senior High in western Miami-Dade County.
A Facebook group for alumni posted a yearbook entry for Betty Guerra, who was then known as Ms. Anton, in which she spoke of how much she liked teaching math.
Sunburn — The morning read of what's hot in Florida politics — 7.30.21 floridapolitics.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from floridapolitics.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
View of the partially collapsed Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside before its demolition July 4, 2021. Archbishop Thomas Wenski, Cardinal Sean O Malley of Boston and Father Juan Sosa, pastor of St. Joseph Church a couple of blocks away, visited the site July 2, 2021. The parts of the building that remained standing were demolished the night of July 4, 2021. (COURTESY) COURTESY
MIAMI BEACH Â | Â Hope Sadowski knew, when she heard about the collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, that Hilda Noriega, her 92-year-old fellow parishioner at St. Joseph, might be among the dead.
âI knew that the chances of her having survived a fall from the sixth floor were very slim,â said Sadowski, an administrative assistant in the archdiocesan Department of Schools and a longtime parishioner at St. Joseph.
Florida Building Collapse: First full day of recovery efforts wpbf.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wpbf.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.