People stop to look at a memorial for victims of the partially collapsed South Florida condo building Champlain Towers South, in Surfside, Fla., on July 4, 2021.Carl Juste/The Associated Press
Ingrid (Itty) Ainsworth, a former Montrealer, has been identified among the victims of the condominium collapse in Surfside, Fla. – one of four Canadians believed buried by the disaster.
The bodies of Ms. Ainsworth, 66, and her husband, Tzvi Ainsworth, 68, were recovered from the rubble Monday, local police said.
Three more Canadians from two different families remain unaccounted for.
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A post on Chabad.org, a U.S. Hasidic website, said Mr. Ainsworth was a native of Australia. He met Ms. Ainsworth, née Fellig, in Montreal while visiting family, the site said, and the couple ultimately settled in Sydney.
The Ainsworths spent roughly 20 years in Australia before moving four years ago to Surfside to be closer to Ms. Ainsworth’s family, The Associated Press reported. Her mother lives in Miami Beach.
The couple have seven children and were celebrating the arrival of two grandchildren – one from a son in South Africa, the other from a son in Florida – in the days before the June 24 collapse, the wire service said.
Their funeral in Queens, N.Y., took place Tuesday, attended by 500 people, The New York Post reported.
In a Mother’s Day blog post last year, one of the couple’s daughters, Chana Wasserman, described her mother as outgoing with an upbeat personality. When Ms. Ainsworth would pick her up from school as a child, Ms. Wasserman recalled, she would stop at every other car in the carpool line to catch up with the other parents. “Every person she encountered, ever in her life, became her friend. Everyone was treated as equals,” Ms. Wasserman wrote. “My mother lives with tremendous passion. Everything in her life is amazing all the time. She surpasses the saying, ‘Seeing the world through rose-coloured glasses.’ My mother sees the world through rainbow-coloured glasses with unicorns and dolphins diving in and out.”
Ms. Ainsworth was diagnosed with fibromyalgia 20 years ago, Ms. Wasserman said, and regularly had to deal with chronic pain and fatigue. But it didn’t change her optimism.
Rabbi Aryeh Citron, who heads the congregation the Ainsworths attended in Surfside, told Miami’s NBC affiliate that Mr. Ainsworth only ever missed a service to take care of his wife.
“Tzvi was a very easygoing fellow, very nice to talk to. Great sense of humour, very chatty,” Rabbi Citron said. “Just had a lot to say about his life and the places he’s been and jobs that he’s done and talking about his kids – just a great all-around guy.”
The Champlain South Towers in Surfside partially collapsed two weeks ago Thursday at 1:30 a.m. ET. Authorities demolished the standing portion of the building Sunday to make searching in the rubble less hazardous for rescuers.
So far, 54 people have been confirmed dead and 86 are unaccounted for.
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Adrian Morrow