Kristen Moody was at work when she got the call.
It was Brad Solomon, a fellow nurse at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center. For some reason, he was on the way to her house. Moody returned to her patients, but when she arrived home that evening, a litany of bulbs poked from the dirt — lilacs and daisies that would sprout soon.
Solomon, Moody’s friend and colleague, had seeded her yard with a garden.
It was a typically thoughtful gesture from Solomon, who trained Moody when she began working at the VA’s intensive care unit. Since then, he has been present for practically every major milestone in her life.
Her wedding. Her 30th birthday. Her baby shower. And now this: Moody’s move into a new home — the exterior expertly beautified by her one-time supervisor and full-time friend, Edmond Bradley Solomon III.
“If he was your friend,” Moody recalled, “you knew it.”
Brad Solomon poses with his wife, Mimi, and former colleague Kristen Moody at Moody's baby shower.
In late March, Moody mailed her friend a birthday card with news of more milestones: She was having another baby and had decided to go back to school to become a nurse anesthesiologist. Solomon, she said, had always pushed her to earn that credential.
She’s heartbroken, now, that her friend may never read those words.
Days after turning 66, Solomon went missing April 3 in a market in Cozumel, Mexico, a small island in the Caribbean Sea that draws a large number of tourists each year — more than 2 million. The circumstances have devastated and baffled family, friends and locals, prompting an upswell of sympathy for the Charleston family.
Solomon has dementia and was on his last big family vacation when the cruise ship ferrying him, his wife, Mimi, and a few family members docked in Cozumel. The couple ducked into restrooms near the cruise terminal. Savannah Miller, his daughter, suspects that Solomon exited first, didn’t see Mimi and wandered off to find his wife. He hasn’t been seen in three weeks.
News outlets across the globe have covered the all-hands-on-deck search for Solomon. At its center is a lifelong Charleston resident, a surfer whose charisma impressed classmates at St. Andrew's Parish High School in West Ashley, an energetic critical care nurse whose biting sense of humor delighted colleagues and a family man who exuded love for his wife and daughter.
“He just was such a selfless person,” Miller said. “He took such pride and joy in helping other people.”
Family members previously told the newspaper the search had shifted from rescue to recovery. Mexican authorities, however, said they’re still combing beaches, caverns and ruins to locate the U.S. citizen. As the effort continued, The Post and Courier reached out to Solomon’s family and friends to spotlight someone many call one of a kind.
Charleston roots
Solomon grew up west of the Ashley River and attended John Wesley United Methodist Church. He was an exuberant presence in the neighborhood — someone everyone liked, recalled friend David Corvette.
Corvette, who has known Solomon since the two were babies, said their fathers coached the church basketball team and that Solomon was a standout player. Growing up, Corvette called Solomon’s dad, Edmond Bradley Solomon Jr., Uncle Buck.
“That’s how close we were,” said Corvette, 63.
Friends from high school describe Solomon as a hardworking, handsome guy who mingled with everyone — jocks, surfers, high achievers. He never met a stranger, said classmate Duke Sams, and never uttered a mean word.
Solomon, too, was always industrious. Classmates remember him wending a school bus through the residential streets of West Ashley — a job available to seniors at the time, Corvette said. Miller, Solomon’s daughter, said she didn’t know her dad maneuvered the bright yellow bus. But learning about his one-time gig made her laugh. “I’m not surprised at all,” she said.
Miller said memories of Solomon have buoyed her amid the tragedy. Tidbits from her dad’s life have flooded Facebook since he went missing. She’s grateful, too, for the locals who cocooned the family in support during their brief stay on the island.
On April 18, Cozumel resident Katy Gonzalez told The Post and Courier crews were still scouring the island for Solomon, even in his family’s absence. Cozumel — about 30 miles long and 10 miles wide — has dense jungle carpeting much of its interior.
Back in the states, friends and family are reminiscing about Solomon as the search enters its fourth week without resolution.
On social media, posts have abounded. One relative recalled watching in awe as Solomon surfed off Folly Beach, starstruck by her older cousin. Friends have shared grainy photos with timestamps stretching back decades. A pastor at St. Andrew’s Church in Mount Pleasant recently led the congregation in prayer for the family.
That family — Solomon, plus Mimi and Miller — is the man’s world, friends said. He was a single dad for much of Miller’s childhood. When he met Mimi, his daughter was thrilled. She walked her dad down the aisle at a backyard ceremony on Edisto Island. A colleague called Mimi and Solomon “soulmates.”
They both worked at the VA, and every day at noon he stopped work to eat lunch with his wife, Moody recalled. That hour was sacred — no matter Solomon’s workload. His daughter, too, was known to colleagues. He talked with palpable pride of Miller, from her career aspirations to volleyball victories. Colleagues felt like they knew his daughter, even if they only met her once or twice.
Brad Solomon, a former critical care nurse, poses in Clemson gear at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center.
Those colleagues include Moody, the beneficiary of Solomon’s green thumb. He planted flowers in Moody’s yard years ago — before his dementia diagnosis in 2022, before the recent cruise.
The wonderful thing about the daisies and other flowers Solomon planted, Moody noted, is that they bloom anew every year.