The devastated friends of five Brooklyn tourists killed in a Grand Canyon helicopter crash will turn their grief into goodwill by carrying out charitable works in their memory.
Tomorrow, a day after the “shiva” mourning period ends for Shaya Lichtenstein, Steve Fastag, David Daskal and Avi and Barbara Wajsbaum, their closest friends will gather to begin planning a charitable memorial in the names of the five Orthodox Jews.
Among the proposals being considered are helping disabled children and buying an ambulance for a volunteer ambulance service.
“In our religion, all the good deeds people did on this Earth bring them closer to God, and if we continue to do good deeds in their names, then we’re helping them get closer and closer to God,” explained Susan Golomb, 33, of Suffern.
“Like this, it’s continuous remembrance of who they were and what they meant to us,” said Susan’s husband, Steve Golomb, who planned the vacation for 20 very close friends.
“And all of us will be there” for the seven children, aged 4 months to 12 years, who lost one or both parents in the crash, he said.
Susan Golomb also said she believes Chana Daskal, 25, the only survivor on the downed chopper, will pull through “and is going to hold her baby again.”
Chana Daskal remains in critical condition in the intensive-care unit of a Las Vegas hospital with burns over 80 percent of her body. Doctors fear they might have to amputate her legs to save her life.
“We all keep praying,” Susan Golomb said, explaining that groups of women get together nightly in Brooklyn and in Rockland County to pray for the critically burned mother of two.