Victim a young mum
Woman killed in train crash had recently moved to US
FABIOLA Bittar de Kroon was in a rush to catch the train.
When she dropped off her toddler daughter at daycare yesterday, she barely had a moment to chat.
“She was dropping off the daughter, I was closing up the stroller,” daycare director Karlos Magner recalled.
“We had a good talk for like a minute. She said she was in a rush.” Mrs de Kroon sprinted off to the Hoboken Terminal.
A short time later, a train travelling too fast crashed through a barrier and into the station, killing Mrs de Kroon amid falling debris and injuring more than 100 people.
Daycare director Maria Sharp said Mrs de Kroon, who had recently moved to the US from Brazil with her husband and daughter, was very involved, always wanting to know how her daughter was growing academically.
“You just saw a smile on her face every time she came to pick up her daughter,” Mrs Sharp said. “And that’s what I keep seeing.”
Mrs De Kroon, 34, worked for the software company SAP in its legal department in Brazil until earlier this year, when she moved to New Jersey after her husband got a job with an international liquor company.
SAP spokesman Andy Kendzie said the company was “shaken by the news” of the train crash and Mrs de Kroon’s death.
He said the company expressed its deepest condolences to Mrs de Kroon’s family and friends and to all of those affected by the “tragic event.”
Cecilia Marques, a former co-worker at a company that specialised in travel to Brazil, said she was saddened and shocked by the news of Mrs de Kroon’s death.
“I am speechless and feel like the world stopped for some moments,” Ms Marques said.
“I had the privilege to get to know and work with Fabiola for some years. She was a great, talented (woman) with a big and genuine heart.”
Mrs De Kroon, a 2011 master’s degree graduate from Florida International University’s College of Business, previously lived in Florida but was a Brazil native, according to her Facebook account.
Dolf Wiemer, a former LG Electronics co-worker who lives in Brazil, said he knew the couple well and in April had visited them before they moved to the US. Mrs De Kroon was excited about the change and her husband’s major career move, Mr Wiemer said.
The de Kroons, he said, were “an international couple not avoiding any adventure by even moving countries in (pursuit) of a better (life)”.
“It is tragic that she had to be in such a bad place at that time while pursuing their dreams of life,” Mr Wiemer said.