The many who loved Jeremiah Grunblatt, a groom killed just three days after his wedding while on his North Fork honeymoon, are coming together to help support his bride and family during their darkest hours.
A Go Fund Me page, “Jeremiah Grunblatt & Family,” was created by Keith Miller to help with expenses. So far, the page has raised $17,613 of its $20,000 target goal in eight days.
Jeremiah and Keturah Grunblatt were honeymooning in Orient Point, her father Richard Stickann told SoutholdLOCAL. They were driving west on Route 25 near Sage Lane in Greenport almost two weeks ago when their car swerved in front of an eastbound Suffolk County transit bus in a head-on crash.
Grunblatt, 42, died at the scene; an EMT said his devastated bride, 39, told him they had been married only three days before. Her Facebook page shows photos of the couple’s wedding in Brooklyn, their smiles radiant.
His daughter lost the love of her life, her father said. “They were just perfect for each other.”
The couple had been together for several years. Both, he said, worked in the same field. His daughter is “a director of operas, all over the world,” and Grunblatt, a set designer and director, was her perfect complement, he said.
“I’d found the perfect creative partner,” Keturah wrote on her Facebook page, on a post in memory of her beloved husband that featured a photo of their first artistic collaboration.
On his Facebook page, Grunblatt proudly displayed photos of a handmade wooden box he’d made for the ring, when he asked Keturah to be his bride.
“They had a lot in common,” her father said, recalling their work in the opera. “They’d collaborated on a couple of pieces recently.”
Keturah’s mother, Catherine Stickann, arrived in Riverhead after the accident to be with her daughter; her father also flew to be by his daughter’s side.
“She was conscious through the whole thing,” he said. “She’s still in shock. They were very much in love.”
Police identified the bus driver as Louis Garnica, 50, of Hampton Bays; he sustained a “severe” leg injury, police said.
A Suffolk County Transit bus, the S-92, was heading eastbound on Route 25, crossing the bridge east of Sage Boulevard, when it was struck by the couple’s small SUV, which swerved into the eastbound lane, colliding with the bus, hitting it head-on, and then striking the guardrail, according to emergency officials on the scene.
The bus driver was treated at the scene by Greenport Fire Department rescue squad before being transported to a local hospital. Of the five adult passengers of the bus, one was treated for minor injuries.
