Nicolas Patoka and his Argentine family who live in Miami do not stop lamenting. They were the ones who loaned the apartment to the Argentine couple and their little daughter to spend just one night, the fatal night in which the Champlain Towers building ended up collapsing. “It was a total disgrace”, says to this correspondent, on the verge of tears. “I wish we had told them no.”
“They weren’t just friends, they were family,” says Nicolás. Refers to Andrés Galfrascoli, 44-year-old plastic surgeon, who is missing along with his partner, Fabian Nuñez, 55, and Sofía, 5, their daughter.
“They live in Argentina and they came here for about 3 months to get vaccinated and escape the pandemic and spend more time with us,” says Nicolás. The couple was all this time housed in the spacious house of the Patoka family, who is dedicated to the real estate business and has been based in Miami for more than 8 years.
The family home is in Hollywood, about 40 minutes north of Champlain Towers, but one day the couple of guests wanted to break the routine and The Patoka offered their friends their apartment in Surfside.
“As they are friends, we told them to go to the apartment in Champlain Towers that day because it is very nice and has a private beach. The truth is that no one knew this was going to happen. I wish we had told them no ”.
“Yesterday my father he was with them until 9 at night in the same department that no longer exists. Then she left and they were going to sleep because they were going to get up early to take the baby to a place to play and then they were going to the beach. The idea was that, but they did not come ”, he relates.
Nicolás tells that they were with Sofía all the time, that she is a girl born from a surrogate womb. “That girl was their dream. They raised her in a spectacular way, ”he highlights.
Nicolás tells Clarion that the couple’s friendship began with their mother. “One of them is a surgeon and he helped us a lot and we also helped him. This was a friendship that grew and more than friends they are family to us, ”he says.
“They are humble and good people and they fight it all the time. They are people to whom they did not give anything. Beyond what I can tell you, it is impossible to describe how they fought to have their little angel and now she too is missing. This has no name ”.
Nicolás adds that the couple wanted to have another son or daughter and “They were fighting for it.” “Now this happens, sometimes life is unfair.”
The Patoka family is all the time pending the fervent search among the rubble. They know that their apartment no longer exists and that they were surely asleep at the time of the collapse.
When asked if they are hopeful, Nicolás answers: “There is a lot of misinformation. We are waiting for you to tell us something, there are some who were rescued alive. I hope that at least one survived, that the girl survived. If things had to go badly, at least one of them has survived, to be able to speak and tell them that we love them, that they can count on us, that they are not alone. “
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source https://pledgetimes.com/nicolas-patoka-owner-of-one-of-the-miami-apartments-they-werent-just-friends-they-were-family/
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