Community Corner

Tinton Falls Dad David Goldman Celebrates His Son's Return in New Book

Goldman talks about how he and his son, Sean, are creating a "normal" life filled with homework and baseball after a five-year separation.

When 8-year-old Sean Goldman finally arrived home in Tinton Falls a few days after Christmas in 2009 after over five years out of the country, he found that his dad’s house had been sprinkled with some holiday magic by local “elves.”

According to his dad, David Goldman, friends, neighbors and even the local fire department had lined the driveway with candy canes, piled presents under a decorated tree and had stockings hung over the fireplace personalized for Sean, David and even Tuey the cat.

“That was really a special Christmas,” said David in an interview last week to promote his new book, A Father’s Love: One Man’s Unrelenting Battle to Bring His Abducted Son Home. “It was all the more special for Sean to see the love and support (of the community).”

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Since then, father and son have concentrated on living a “normal” life in Tinton Falls—filled with homework, bowls of cereal and baseball. “I’m so grateful to have the second chance,” said David, who will appear at the Barnes & Noble in Eatontown for a book signing on May 12. “But we’ll never make up for the time we were apart.”

On June 16, 2004, David drove 4-year-old Sean and his wife Bruna to Newark Airport for what was ostensibly a two-week trip to Brazil to visit her family. What David soon discovered was that his wife of four years had no intention of returning to their home in Tinton Falls and planned to keep their son with her in Rio de Janeiro.

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What followed was a five-year legal odyssey through the maze of international child abduction laws that eventually attracted the support of Representative Chris Smith, NBC News and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Aside from the international furor created over the abduction, David agreed that there are a number of elements of the story that seem written for a Lifetime movie, including Bruna’s death giving birth to her second husband’s child in Brazil and Sean’s dramatic return to his father on Christmas Eve.

David grew up in Ocean Township and sprinkles his book with plenty of local references—like the Eatontown town house he and Bruna lived in as newlyweds, their wedding reception at the Molly Pitcher Inn and the Red Bank bar where he meets the new woman in his life.

One of his great joys, said David, is watching Sean, who will turn 11 later this month, overcome his fears and learn to ride a bicycle and sign up to play organized baseball this spring for the first time (already an RBI, as of last week).

When he’s not out cheering for Sean’s baseball team, running his charter boat or doing some modeling jobs, David said he’s trying to “turn the spotlight” onto the many children who have been abducted and illegally held outside their home countries. He is scheduled to testify before congress on May 26 as a lead witness on the issue.

David said he wrote the book to bring “hope and inspiration” to parents trying to get their children back from abductors. “It’s about how you need to believe and stay focused.”

Even though David spent some of his younger years as a fashion model living in Milan and working with big names in the business like Claudia Schiffer and Kathy Ireland, he remains a Monmouth County guy and knows the importance of valuing your neighbors.

Last December, a year after he got Sean back, David said the two stopped by the Chelsea at Tinton Falls senior living center unannounced to wish residents happy holidays. David explained that many residents had made “Welcome home Sean” signs the year before and sent their best wishes upon his return, and that they wanted to “stop by and say ‘thanks.’”

“You should have seen the joy in their eyes and on their faces,” David remembered.

“We had so much support from Tinton Falls when we came home,” said David, adding that getting Sean back to Monmouth County had been a grassroots effort.

“This is where we’re from,” he explained.  “This is who we are”


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