Couples' Honeymoon Tragedy in Huge Tempest-Tossed Seas / Sailor still sought as coastal communities clean up after deadly waves 0 PACIFICGROVE -- Five days after he married the love of his life, Eamon Stookesberry stood on the front lawn of their Concord home yesterday and tearfully recounted the death of his wife, Jennifer, in the huge waves off Pacific Grove on Thursday. "If you people have anybody special, don't sweat the small stuff, make it work," he tearfully told a handful of reporters. "You get one chance. She was that one for me. She was my angel, my kitten." Jennifer Stookesberry, 23, drowned after she was swept out to sea by a wave as she posed with her back to the ocean for a photo at scenic Lovers Point. Eamon Stookesberry saw the huge wave swallow his wife and suck her down a 20-foot cliff. He threw aside the camera and dived into the churning surf. He grabbed her hand, but she slipped away. He shouted to her to hang onto the seaweed to stay afloat and keep an eye seaward for waves and urged her not to panic as the currents pulled her away. "She got really far away and I heard her scream for help," he said. "Then there were two big waves and that was the last time I saw her." The U.S. Coast Guard arrived soon after and pulled Eamon from the surf. They found Jennifer, her eyes open but dark, and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation as they headed for shore and the emergency room. Paramedics and doctors told Eamon Stookesberry that she had a chance. But when he saw doctors furiously pounding her chest, he knew she was gone. He walked in, held her hand the way she liked and said goodbye. "She used to always take our hands like this," Eamon Stookesberry said, clasping his hands. "So she could see the rings together." Surrounded by a dozen friends, his mother and his brother, Eamon Stookesberry, a 28-year-old housepainter, wore his wife's wedding ring as he faced a small knot of reporters. He said he met Jennifer almost three years ago when she strolled down the street from her Clayton home and into the bar where he worked as a bartender. They soon became constant companions. Three months later they moved in together. "She was so beautiful," he said. "I was just astonished by her. We were inseparable. We became best friends. We knew each other inside and out. There was no defining moment when we fell in love. She just won me over heart and soul." The two were married last Saturday at the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley. It was a perfect wedding, he said, and he was eager for Jennifer to view the wedding video and see his recorded message. "I told her, 'I will love you for the rest of my life. You are everything for me' and I teared up," he said. "I really wanted her to see that." The pounding waves also took the life of 20-year-old San Jose surfer Daniel Jordan at New Brighton State Beach near Aptos on Thursday. Heavy seas subsided yesterday, giving coastal cities and residents time to clean up. The storm that dropped in quickly from the Gulf of Alaska disappeared just as quickly by moving onshore yesterday, with seas expected to return to normal today and tomorrow, said Norm Hoffmann, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. No small-craft advisories or heavy-surf warnings were expected, he said. Thursday's spectacular surf was caused by high tides and 40-mph winds blowing down from Washington and Oregon. "The wind has to blow in a common direction over long distance of water to create these kinds of waves, and 500 miles really kicks up some seas," Hoffman said. The break in the weather was expected to assist the Coast Guard in its search for a sailor on a 30-foot boat with a broken mast, last seen 500 miles off the Mendocino County coast. READ FULL ARTICLE