Husband's death in trade center too much to take
Widow shot herself at mountain home
12/13/01
By Natalie Pompilio
Staff writer/The Times-Picayune
nola.com
A New Orleans native devastated by the loss of her husband in the World Trade Center tragedy ended her own life Monday in the home where she had lived alone since Sept. 11.
Patricia Vallette Flounders died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at her home in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains, Monroe County Coroner Dave Thomas said. Friends and family members said the 51-year-old widow was despondent after losing her husband, Joe, who was last seen in his brokerage office in the World Trade Center's south tower.
"He was just a great, wonderful man and she'd looked forward to spending the rest of her life with him, and this totally destroyed her retirement dreams. She didn't know what she was going to do without him," said Kelly Lewis, a Pennsylvania state legislator who befriended Flounders after her husband's death.
The couple had settled in the rural area 80 miles from New York City three years ago. Joe Flounders woke up at 3:30 a.m. every weekday so he could make it to his office on the 84th floor of the trade center's south tower by 8:30 a.m. He sacrificed so his wife, who had survived breast cancer and was suffering from heart problems, could relax far from the urban jungle, friends and family said.
But he, too, cherished the couple's mountain hideaway. Flounders told The New York Times that her 46-year-old husband called their home "his sanctuary." After years of work, the couple put the finishing touches on their retreat Sept. 8.
On Sept. 11, Flounders called her husband's office after watching on television as a jet hit the building's north tower. She urged him to get out of the building. He told her he would, as soon as he helped a friend. She couldn't convince him to do otherwise.
Then the second jet came into sight. It struck her husband's building between the 78th and 84th floors.
"She watched it all on TV and she was just devastated," Lewis said.
In the days that followed, Flounders clung to the idea that her husband had made it out of the building before it collapsed. Her hope was buttressed by news that many of his co-workers were unhurt.
She also remembered what happened to her husband after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. After that attack, Joe Flounders went into shock and wandered the city for two days before rescue workers helped him get home, said Patricia Flounders' sister, Evelyn Vallette Bernard of Lafayette. It took him months to get over the trauma, Bernard said, but he eventually went back to work.
"In her mind, she thought he was just in a daze somewhere," Bernard said. "Like the other families, she waited and waited . . . and nothing ever happened."
As Flounders struggled to accept her husband's death, one of her beloved Shih Tzus died, Lewis said. Then she had trouble untangling her finances, long handled by her husband on the computer.
"She didn't know passwords or anything like that," Lewis said.
Despite her financial difficulties, Flounders insisted that the bulk of the money raised in her area for the families of local victims go to the children who had lost parents Sept. 11.
"She made me promise I'd help all of these kids," Lewis said. "She said, ‘Don't worry about me. Worry about these poor children.' "
The tiny community of Middle Smithfield Township adopted Flounders after the tragedy, said her neighbor, Arlene Jones. People took turns dropping in on the widow, bringing food and an eagerness to listen. Jones last spoke to Flounders on Dec. 6.
"When we were over there, she seemed to be OK. Not happy, but OK," Jones said. "Maybe she had it harder than we actually knew."
Flounders' Louisiana relatives last saw her two weeks ago, when they flew to New York to support their sister during her husband's memorial service. It was a beautiful ceremony, Bernard said, and her sister bravely accepted an urn of ashes and an American flag from New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Flounders then gave the flag to her husband's employer.
Before the Vallette siblings returned to Louisiana, they advised their sister to avoid making any decisions before she had worked through her grief.
"We invited her for Christmas," Bernard said. "She said she'd give it some thought."
Besides her sister, Flounders is survived by a son, Christian Croner, of New York; two brothers, Norman and Richard, both of New Orleans; a niece; and three nephews. A memorial service will be held today in Brooklyn. No local service has been scheduled. |
