Family Who Lost Home At Jersey Shore Meets Prince Harry In Mantoloking
by Todd Quinones
GLADWYNE, Pa., (CBS) - This was a day the Harris and Gunther families won't soon forget.
It was a day they stood next to royalty and shook hands with one of the most recognizable princes in the world.
"He smelled good," said 13-year-old Emily Harris.
Harris, just to the left of Prince Harry, got up close and personal.
The family met the Prince while he toured Mantoloking on Tuesday, snapping pictures along the way that made national news with their similar red hair.
"He was much more open and he was shaking everybody's hands. He was talking to people. He let us take a picture with him. I didn't expect him to be that accessible," Liesl Gunther said.
But beyond the excitement of meeting a royal prince, this family's post-Sandy story is no fairy tale.
Their vacation home has been in the family since the 1920s. Sandy washed it away.
When they met the prince, they were standing on the family's now vacant lot.
"It was like a death for our family without question. I recognize it was a second home for us, and for many people who had a primary residence lost everything," Rebecca Bowden Gunther said.
And like many families down the shore, they are still struggling with their insurance company.
"We've had that house forever and we had an incredible policy. We haven't gotten a red cent. So I've been spending the last six months fighting with them," Nancy Bowden Harris said.
The Gunther and Harris families are hopeful Prince Harry's visit helps shed some light on the problems that persist down the shore.
