Sandy washed away their treasured memories — but a wave of kindness brought them back.
A Staten Island couple was convinced they had lost a lot more than furniture when the October superstorm ravaged their home — they had to throw out a waterlogged photo album, including family wedding pics from the ’50s.
“Everything was floating,” said Mary Buongiorno, who lost other photo albums with her husband, Lenny. “We were looking at the pictures — with bacteria and water, you don’t know what to do.
“I figured it was gone forever.”
Distraught, the couple left the pictures on the lawn of their Midland Beach home to be thrown out.
Paul Martinka
BACK TO LIFE: Leonard and Mary Buongiorno with Sandy-damaged photos (left) restored (right) by a Samaritan.
But good Samaritan Mike Valente, a bus driver, couldn’t let the memories go to waste. He found the photos on the side of the road and got to work immediately.
“When the album came to my house, it smelled terrible,” said Valente, of Eltingville. “It was sitting underwater for two weeks, the leather and cardboard absorbed the water and there was also sewage there.”
He worked for five weeks to restore the album, chipping away at it a few hours each night to clean, dry, rescan and restore the photos on his computer.
Mary was at a friend’s house last week when Valente showed up with the surprise.
“I never expected anything,” she said. “When I opened it up, the pictures were just overwhelming!”
Valente had a simple explanation for his random act of kindness.
“We have traditions and we have things that we do in my family; I’m all about memories,” he said.
Brooklyn photographer Rob Loud knows the story too well.
“Several people close to me lost homes, cars, countless possessions,” said Loud, 33, who lived in Long Beach for four years and moved to Clinton Hill in May. “Everyone always says, ‘If there’s one possession you cannot get back, it’s photos.’ ”
So the shutterbug last week volunteered his time and talents to host a photo shoot with Sandy victims who lost their family portraits — and help them regain some of the memories lost during the storm.
pedro.oliveira@nypost.com
Picture-perfect! Good Sam restores SI couple's Sandy-damaged photos
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Picture-perfect! Good Sam restores SI couple's Sandy-damaged photos
