Esme Marais tried to find comfort in her own words Wednesday as she planned for a funeral in her husband’s adopted hometown in Montana.
“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 her husband, Gert Marais.
Marais, 42, of Fort Benton, Mont., a native South African, had lived all over the world before settling in Montana in 2001, his wife said.
He had moved to Colorado last fall to work for Aero Applicators Inc. of Sterling, a flying- in service that contracts firefighting aid to government agencies.
Esme and the couple’s four children planned to move to Sterling this summer, she said.
“He was a big family man,” his wife said through tears.
The couple was married 10 years ago this month. He was already caring for three of his own children, now ages 19, 17 and 12, and together he and Esme had a 5-year-old.
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 family friend and superintendent of the Fort Benton Public Schools.
“He is fun to sit and listen to,” Anderson said. “He had all this background on things that are happening” around the world.
“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.”
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com
