Family's 'crazy' reunion with son's memorial plaque after hurricane destroyed it

A family has been reunited with their son’s memorial plaque after it was washed away by a Hurricane Milton, as Sangeeta Khandola reports

Words by Rachel Dixon

A family has been reunited with their son’s memorial plaque after it was washed away by a hurricane – thanks to what they’ve described as “the power of social media”.

The Schiller family, of Finchley, had the commemorative plaque put up at their son’s favourite spot on holiday on a pier in Anna Maria Island, Florida, after Max died unexpectedly aged ten in 2017.

When Hurricane Milton hit the US State last week, the powerful tides completely destroyed the pier and took Max’s plaque with it.

It was one of the places the family, who often holiday to the area, could go to feel connected to Max.

His father, David Schiller said: “We used to sit off the end and and and fish on the pier, and we’d go there as a family group and with friends.

“Then Hurricane Milton hit and the pictures we started seeing was the rod and reel, just not being there at all.

“I think that hit everybody.

“The rod and reels gone. The plaques gone.”

Rod Reel Pier was washed away by Hurricane Milton. / Credit:

But just days later the family were left “lost for words” when hundreds of Facebook notifications filled their phones.

The owners of a nearby construction site had posted a picture of the plaque on their page, in an attempt to return it to the family.

His mother Shira Schiller said: “Our feeds, blew up with people trying to find us.

“I thought, Oh my God, that’s our plaque, it was crazy.

“It was one piece of this pier that had been found, and it was our piece. It was Max’s piece.”

The Schiller family and their son Max. / Credit: Handout

While the couple were delighted by the discovery, they were equally touched that people had researched and read about Max in the hunt for the family.

“If people keeping reading about him, and finding out about him, it keeps him alive,” Mrs Schiller told ITV London.

Max died in 2017 of an undetected heart condition known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy – a thickening of the muscle wall of the heart.

It is a genetic heart condition that does not always display symptoms and consequently is very difficult to detect.

The ten-year-old had been a keen football fan and would visit the Emirates Stadium with his dad every weekend.

Since Max’s death, the Schiller family have raised more than £850,000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital, where he had undergone testing before he passed away.