Esme Marais tried to find comfort in her own words as she planned for a funeral in her husband’s adopted hometown of Fort Benton, Mont., today.
“He loved to fly. It’s all he ever wanted to do, and he loved the dangerous stuff — crop-dusting, fighting fires,” she said of Gert Marais, the contract slurry pilot who died Tuesday fighting a massive brush fire when his single-engine airtanker crashed near Fort Carson.
Marais, 42, a native of South Africa, had lived all over the world before settling in Montana in 2001, his wife said.
He had moved to Colorado last fall to work at Aero Seat in Sterling, which contracts firefighting aid to government agencies.
Esme and the couple’s four children planned to move to Sterling when school was out for the summer, she said. Instead, she will make the trip alone to retrieve her husband’s things after the funeral, she said.
“He was a big family man,” his wife said through tears.
The two were married 10 years ago this month. He was already caring for three of his own children, ages 19, 17 and 12, and, together, he and Esme had a 5-year-old.
His wife said he always dreamed of flying, making all manner of paper airplanes as a child.
His parents and a sister also settled in Fort Benton, a close-knit community of 1,600 northeast of Great Falls.
He was known as Jerry to his friends, and he was a talented aircraft mechanic.
“I found him to be very detailed. I would call him a perfectionist,” said Bob Anderson, a Marais family friend and superintendent of Fort Benton Public Schools.
Marais had lived in Europe, the Middle East, Florida and Utah before landing in Montana, Anderson said.
He was an avid bow hunter and a wonderful person to be around, his friend said.
“He is fun to sit and listen to,” Anderson said. “He had all this background on things that are happening” around the world.
Marais and his extended family embraced the Fort Benton community, and news of his death has shaken local residents.
“People are just shaking their heads and are kind of down,” Anderson said. “How horrible it is for the family. A lot of people care about the Maraises.”
Esme Marais said of Montana, “This is our home in America.”
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
