Globetrotting Fabiola Bittar de Kroon’s last trip was a Thursday morning jaunt to the Hoboken Terminal.
The 34-year-old mom seemed to have it all: the man of her dreams, an 18-month-old baby girl and a high-powered career that sent her around the world before bringing her to the New York area.
“It’s incredibly sad that this child won’t know her mother,” a friend said after de Kroon became the lone fatality in the horrific NJ Transit train crash in Hoboken.
Her mother, Sueli Bittar, speaking with the Daily News from Santos, Brazil, was still reeling from the news of Fabiola’s shocking death.
“I had a beautiful, clever daughter and I have a wonderful granddaughter,” Bittar said. “Her husband is a wonderful guy. I don’t know what to tell you because it’s very hard for us now. It is very sad.”
De Kroon, a Hoboken resident, was an accomplished and driven woman who always carved out time for her family — with Sueli Bittar saying her daughter and son-in-law had discussed having a second child.
The friend, who asked to remain anonymous, told The News the happily married couple was deeply in love.
“She and her husband married several years ago and they spent a long time fostering a beautiful relationship,” said the friend, who studied with de Kroon while she was earning her MBA in Florida.
“They recently made the decision to have a child and I know that was really big for them,” said the friend. “When the baby arrived it was hugely important to Fabiola.”
De Kroon had just left her toddler at day care before heading to the Hoboken station.
“She was dropping off the daughter, I was closing up the stroller,” day care director Karlos Magner recalled. “We had a good talk for like a minute. And she said she was in a rush.”
De Kroon, a native of Santos, married Daan de Kroon eight years ago, according to their social media pages. The two resided in Miami and then Sao Paolo, and Daan’s family lived in Europe.
“She was so outgoing, very smart and career-focused, but she was also open to other cultures,” said her friend. “She loved being social, going out for meals, hanging out with friends.
“She and her husband were such a great couple to be with because they had such synergy together.”
On Thursday, Fabiola headed to the Hoboken Terminal to catch a train after dropping off her little girl, according to WNBC-TV.
Her husband was traveling at the time of the accident, and he returned to Hoboken hours later to pick up their daughter, Julia, after learning of Fabiola’s death.
The two had only arrived one year ago in Hoboken.
“She was so beautiful, so energetic, such a beautiful smile,” the friend said.
Fabiola worked until recently as a lawyer in Brazil for SAP, a global computer software company. A company spokesman said her ex-colleagues were “profoundly saddened” by her death.
“We express our deepest condolences to her family, friends, and all those impacted by today’s tragic event,” the spokesman said.
Two women aboard the doomed train — one five months pregnant, the other a mother of two kids — managed to escape with their lives from the Pascack Valley line train crash.
Alexis Valle, 24, was sitting in the front car of the train when the terrifying wreck occurred. She never expected to leave the train with her life.
“I thought we were going to die,” said the Bergenfield, N.J., woman, referring to her unborn child. “I didn’t think we were going to get out.”
Valle said she felt the train accelerate as they were supposed to slow down before arriving at the Track 5 platform. There was a massive crash, and the car’s ceiling collapsed on her head.
Fellow commuters helped her to safety through the train window as she became the first of 108 injured to escape from the wreckage.
Valle, who needed four staples to close a gash on her head, said her baby received a clean bill of health, too. Her mom, Jeanette, rushed to Hoboken from Brooklyn to check in on both daughter and future grandchild.
“You’re relieved to hear she’s alive, because she was saying the people behind her, she didn’t known if they made it,” Jeanette Valle said.
One car behind Valle, a New Jersey mom shared her fears as her mind flashed to her two children — a 19-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter.
“I’m lucky to be alive for my kids,” said the woman from New Milford, N.J. “I’m so happy. I’m OK.”
Miriam — who declined to give her last name — was rising from her seat when the train slammed into the 109-year-old building. She injured her leg when she went flying into the seat in front of her.
Miriam, instead of heading on the PATH train to her Wall St. job, was instead picked up by her son Emmanuel after X-rays showed no damage to her leg.
She was particularly grateful to a pair of men who stayed with her until first responders brought her outside.
“They were very nice people,” she said. “It made me feel so good that there’s good people.”
Commuter David Mielach walked away from his seat in the first car of the train with nothing more serious than a case of whiplash. He was standing on the train when everything went dark.
“You don’t process it at the moment,” said Mielach. “I just looked around. I climbed out of the train. I had to kick (the window) out. I’m shaken but all right.”
With News Wire Services
