Baby Maria is
hanging on.
The 2-month-old
whose mom died
saving her and her
brother from the
Brooklyn inferno
that killed five is
doing better but is
not out of the
woods.
Maria Maura Chan was
in intensive care
Sunday night at
Schneider's Children
Hospital in New Hyde
Park, L.I., where
doctors, who expect
her to survive, were
working to repair
two skull fractures.
She was in critical
but stable
condition.
Her father, Miguel
Chan, was a jumble
of emotion yesterday
- heartbroken that
his wife, Luisa, 34,
died in the
Bensonhurst blaze
that consumed their
apartment but
thankful he still
has Maria and his
son, Josias, 2. "I
have pain in the
heart. My wife died
in the flesh, but
her soul didn't," he
said later,
surrounded by
mourners at Jovenes
Cristianos church ,
where he had married
Luisa after a long
New York-Guatemala
romance.
He was distraught to
learn that the fire
may have been
deliberately set.
"They should find
whoever's guilty,"
he said. "That would
be right. The
authorities have to
do what they do.
It's not fair, it's
not good. We have to
love each other."
He spent much of the
night at the
hospital with tiny
Maria, who can now
open one eye and
won't need brain
surgery."I'm just
glad she's going to
be okay," Chan, 38,
said quietly.
"That's what I
wanted to hear after
waiting."
Little Josias, who
was unhurt in the
early Saturday
morning fire, was
with relatives.
"My heart is broke
but my soul is
happy. I know this
life on Earth is
short, but I believe
in God and life in
our soul is
eternity," said
Chan, who says he'll
tell his kids the
full truth about
what happened to
their mother when
they are old enough
to understand.
His church became a
hub of sorts for
mourners affected by
Saturday's fire.
Family, friends and
strangers paid
respects to the five
killed in the form
of prayers and
donations of money
and clothes. Many
there mourned Juan
Itzep Barreno, 28, a
construction worker
who earned money to
send to his wife and
five kids back in
Guatemala.
His wife, Micaela
Morales Chaj, had a
heart attack when
she learned how
Barreno died, said a
family friend.
Others wept for
Valerio Cupil,
Antonio Ixtay
Mendoza and Agustin
Coyoy, who were
named as other
victims by those at
the church, though
police aren't yet
confirming those
identities.
Churchgoers, sipping
tea, watched
red-eyed as little
Josias played with a
toy car, oblivious
to the grief around
him.
"She did it for the
love of the kids,"
said Luisa Chan's
brother Andres
Ordonez, 30. "God
saved him. It was a
miracle that he was
able to survive."
All five who died
are expected to be
flown home to
Guatemala.
knelson@nydailynews.com
