A gift of tender kindness is now permanently on display in Northeast Philadelphia after a local veteran-owned paint company brought a little light to a woman’s world that has been dark since Jan. 31.
Amira Brown’s world had turned upside down when a medical jet crashed in Northeast Philly on Jan. 31, 2025, killing everyone on board and two people on the ground.
One of them was her son, Stephen Druitt, and his girlfriend who were in a car on the 2300 block of Cottman Avenue with his son.
“He had died pretty much instantly in the car, he never made it out,” Brown explained. “I wear Stephen’s ring around my neck and I have his ashes in this ring.”
When Andrew Tomasetti, of Paint Philadelphia, heard Brown’s story, he wanted to help so he offered to give her Mount Airy home a fresh coat of paint.
“This just feels like something, a little bit of hope we could give her to show her and her family that we support her and that we’re here for her,” Tomasetti explained.
Friday, Oct. 24 was the big reveal and Brown was overcome with emotion when she saw her home.
During the event, she gave an update on her grandson, 9-year-old Ramsey, and said he is still being treated at a hospital in Boston.
Ramsey was in the car with his dad that night and he suffered from burns over 90% of his body.
“He’s doing pretty good,” Brown said. “They still working on him.”
For Ramsey’s brother, the last ten months have been difficult.
“He’s really having a hard time. He doesn’t talk much, but we’re doing the best we can,” Brown said of Ramsey’s brother.
Brown said that she is grateful, not just for the paint job, but for the people at Paint Philadelphia.
Brown is planning a worldwide memorial balloon release to honor her son on his birthday – Dec. 23.