On the streets of SoHo after a week of protests following the death of
Mr. George Floyd
Life….I have lived and been through a lot. Most of it really wonderful, some of it really hard, none of it would I change. (Well, maybe the pain my Ladies have had to endure...)
This..is the most surreal time I have ever experienced. A child of the 70’s, meaning my teen-age years were in that decade, high school class of ’75. Heard a lot about sex, drugs, rock and roll…didn’t understand it til I got to high school at the end of that era. Thank God, I was afraid of drugs; was a “good Catholic” girl; but the drinking age was 18 when I was in high school..enough said on that…suffice it to say, my taste in wine has simply improved with age…
Memories…..
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| Photographer: Stan Stearns |
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| beatlesbible.com |
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| bostonglobe.com |
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| www.huffingtonpost.com |
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| www.upi.com |
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| www.cbsnews.com |
1972-1974: Watergate, one of the most famous break-ins in history, June 1972, ultimately leading to President Nixon’s resignation in August of 1974 were the beginning of my real awakening to how important politics were in American life. In all honesty, at the time, I was simply mesmerized by how pretty Mrs. Dean was. |
| www.upi.com |
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| USAFA Chapel |
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| Rookery Park in Oxford, England |
1985: My first proverbial shoe dropping happened shortly after coming back to the United States, to Texas. My “officer and not so gentleman” left me for another, sending me back to the arms and love of my big and boisterous Boston Irish Catholic family. This is when and where my profession was one of my many God-sends.
1990- 2012: Years fled by, as they do, and I met a guy, my white-water rafting guide. Finally trusting him to marry, life continued on. My Ladies grew and went off to college, making me proud all the way. 2001: In the midst of these years was a day that changed the world: 9/11. It was beyond disconcerting when the borders were shut that day. My older Daughter was in college in Montreal, and Mom was on a trip to Quebec City. (Luckily the border shutdown was quickly lifted.) My younger daughter had just started her senior year of high school, and selfishly, my heart cried also for what that meant for she and her classmates. (I was proud and impressed when my Sister told me that Kristi had sent a note to the Seniors of high school and college in our family this spring giving them a pep talk…) Eventually, the next big shoe drop: I learned that the person I had trusted my, and more importantly my Ladies,’ heart with for many years had betrayed us; destroying and ending our family as we had known it for twenty years.
2013: All the while, I had my career of dental hygiene, thank God; until that ended, in part due to the Boston Marathon bombing. Crying “Uncle,” I decided it was time to fulfill some life long dreams. I sold almost everything I owned and moved to NYC to heal and rebuild my life.
2015: While riding a motorcycle and not wearing a helmet, my second husband had an accident putting him into a coma. More than one has asked me if he had a death wish? A week later I had to make the decision to turn off all life-saving machines. (While at the hospital I saw the news that a precious toddler from Syria, Aylan Kundi, had drowned as his family attempted to flee from their civil war-torn country to a new life.) The next year was a myriad of new experiences in settling an estate, fighting off lawsuits, and ultimately the selling of a much beloved cabin on a lake in Maine.
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| Hospital in Kono, Sierre Leone |
2017: This all had occurred while my older daughter Katie fought Ebola in Sierre Leone as a Nurse Practitioner. Traveling to Sierre Leone with Kristi, my younger daughter, once Ebola had been eradicated was one of the toughest, most interesting, and emotional trips of my life. It was pretty profound seeing what Katie had helped to accomplish.
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| Mytilini Castle on Lesvos |
2020: “Real life” now… My most recent visit to Lesvos was in February. When I left the US, a new virus, much like the flu, was hitting China pretty hard. Apparently, a traveler arrived with it to the US in January. (Or so it was thought in the US.) Travel from China to the US was banned by early February, after three major airlines declared they were stopping service. I apparently missed the WHO’s declaring this a global emergency. Listening to my own country’s proclamations was a mistake. So, I went to my beloved Lesvos, again. Planning to stay for two months, instead I came home after two weeks. The WHO acknowledged we were in the midst of a worldwide pandemic and the US decided to halt traffic coming from Europe. (I have already written a bit on those two weeks:https://www.blogger.com/blogger.gblogID=5815993447247107855#editor/target=post;postID=8825676033135430750;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=postname.)
When I “awoke” after my self-quarantine, New York had been placed in PAUSE, effectively shutdown. So, I have been stuck in NYC as travel anywhere is limited at best. Truth be told, much of me wishes I had stayed in Greece. I was safer there from the virus. Greece has miraculously not been that hard hit, and Lesvos has had only a few cases, thus far. Thank God, because if it hit Kara Tepe, or Moria... But, I did the right thing by coming back….
I do best when I am busy. I have a few books in me, I believe, but am having trouble actually being able to write much at the moment. It is fascinating to see that with all the craziness that we humans can and do and inflict on each other, a virus could stop the world. I am watching and reading too much on social media. Although, I must admit Governor Cuomo’s daily news-briefs have been comforting; and he and his brother have been entertaining, taking the world by storm making many of us Cuomosexual….
Politics, I hate. I am like the Nike logo, “Just do it.” Which may actually be one of the reasons I
appreciate the Governor of my home state right now. To say I am disillusioned and disgusted by much of the Federal Government right now is an understatement. Having been raised in the Boston area, I was born into liberalism, with Dad being a true Pacifist. I married very young into the Air Force, which tends to be to the right. Ah, the discussions Dad and I had in those days. Linus from the Charles Schultz’s Peanuts gang once said: ”There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people...religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.” Eventually realizing that I always voted for the candidate, not the party, I registered as an Independent.
Never do I remember the political climate in the US to be so polarized. Perhaps I was simply too busy living my life, and admittedly, I have more time today, which until the Pandemic was quite lovely; not gonna lie. For most of my life, I have been a very proud American, and accepting of the freedom of people’s views and opinions. I have also been called a “Polly-anna” by some….
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| Charles Schultz |
Never do I remember the political climate in the US to be so polarized. Perhaps I was simply too busy living my life, and admittedly, I have more time today, which until the Pandemic was quite lovely; not gonna lie. For most of my life, I have been a very proud American, and accepting of the freedom of people’s views and opinions. I have also been called a “Polly-anna” by some….
What has been interesting, and heartening, quite frankly, is that with many of the Friends I have made on Lesvos who have escaped things that most of us in the US cannot fathom, the United Sates of America is still the “promised land of opportunity” that my Grandparents came to from Ireland, arriving through Ellis Island in the 1920’s. Eyes light up, especially when I tell folks that I live in New York City. One beautiful young Lady whom I worked with almost daily in the kitchens during my Lesvos trip in the spring-summer of 2018, asked if she could come visit me in America? I had to look into her eyes and say, “Not now, not until the laws in my country change.” I felt so sad, ashamed, and frustrated. I think this lovely Lady is from Iraq. I usually forget where the friends that I make on Lesvos are from, as it doesn’t matter. But her country is one of those that this administration doesn’t allow. She had taken one of those rubber boats with her two sisters at the ages of 19, 20, and 22. Thank God, they are now reunited with their parents in Germany.
Recently, I found myself in a conversation on Facebook (I hate when this happens. Usually, I cut it short, but this particular time, I felt it was appropriate.) My Nurse Practitioner is now out in Navajo Nation at Tséhootsooí Medical Center on Fort Defiance. I sometimes re-post some of the information she shares.
That conversation. I had posted the statistics stating Navajo Nation had the highest rate of Covid19 after New York City and New Jersey (It has now surpassed both, and has the highest rate of Covid 19 per capita in the US.). A very special Friend whom I met on Kara Tepe in 2018, a dear Guy who is 20 years old living with his younger brother in northern Greece, Redo, asked me “Where is Navajo?” Which lead to this discussion that I would like to share:
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| Redo & I on Lesvos July 2018 |
Redo: Hah!! So it’s not a place or a city but people right?
Me: Navajo is the people. Navajo Nation is home.
Redo: Hmm oke. Well that is sad to hear the news. Hope they all get well soon as possible!
Me: Thank you! This is a Global Pandemic. Inshallah, we will all get well as soon as possible. Xo Someday, we shall have a US history lesson about this..easier in person…Alas, the way the US treated Native American is not a proud story in our history.
Redo:That you say mom. But you may not believe. In my country all the people describe how best is the American treatments/doctors. That no country is better than America.
Me: Ah, Redo, this is too difficult to do on FB…Let’s just say that for now..I am saddened and a little disillusioned, even in my own country because, yes, we do have some of the best medicine and treatments in the world (and we were
absolutely not prepared for a Global Pandemic…) But, I do believe in the magic and mystery of Faith, Hope, and Love, right?! We will all get through this.
Redo: Mom we shall believe Hope, love and faith have always been through most difficulties.
(This conversation and picture with Redo has been shared with his permission.)
Back to now…. I still need to do something. Lately, I have been accepting my age for the first time; not liking it; but accepting it. But, what I really am having a hard time with is that I cannot volunteer in many places anymore, due to the Covid 19 risks. I did find an organization that has been on my radar for years, God’s Love We Deliver that welcomed me. What I was very pleased to learn is that this NGO was started by a nurse to help a friend during another epidemic that hit the US in the ’80s, HIV/Aids. “The mission of God’s Love We Deliver is to improve the health and well-being of men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other serious illnesses by alleviating hunger and malnutrition.” Going down to SoHo once or twice a week to work in the kitchen to help prep meals, or whatever needs doing, has been lovely. It’s nice to be physically tired again. GLWD has almost doubled the meals it provides since the beginning of the Covid19 Pandemic. I have also been able to help neighbors out a bit doing errands as I am the young kid on the block. And, finally spring has arrived, and I can be out in my beloved Secret Garden.  |
| Gene & Jill's plane |
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| www.woodsteelstone.com |
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| Designed at NYU |
Another great guy I know from my NYC life, Charles Grantham, stopped creating his gorgeous pieces for a while, to create intubation boxes and face shields for New York, and many hundreds of those face shields have very graciously been shared with Navajo Nation.
More frustrating texts revolved around surgical gowns. Katie’s hospital was about to run out. Would my friends who are artists creating children’s clothes and hats be willing to make gowns? (Tuff Kookooshka and Swan & Stone Millinery have been making, sharing, and donating surgical masks all over New England, and beyond. I have spent many wonderful hours with these Dear Friends at the Grand Central Holiday Market.) Yes, but finding materials was then an issue. I started researching, a dizzying exercise which led me mostly to the Far East. Digging out a card from a lady I refer to as my Fairy God Friend (a long story there) I reached out to see if she could help me source material for these gowns as she is a clothing designer/manufacturer. Well, it turns out that since not many people are buying women’s clothing, and that there is a desperate need here in NYC for medical-surgical gowns; you guessed it; she is manufacturing them. Katie and my Fairy God Friend have been introduced.
So, in this surreal time of ours, one can stay and be busy. Magic does happen because most People are good, and kind. I hope, I must believe in that and at the end of this pandemic craziness, we as humans will be kinder and gentler. Inshallah….
(As I finally put the finishing touches on this, my country is in the midst of yet another crisis…one that has been simmering slowly for many many years. Another part of my country’s history that is also not a proud one, revolves around race. In the midst of a Pandemic, the murder of a Black Man, Mr. George Floyd, by police, has brought the country, and much of the world, to a tipping point. I hope to write more on it, but am simply too sad to succinctly wrap my mind around it at this moment. It is too raw. Right now, I am grateful that local and state leadership around the US seems to stepping up to the plate as much as they can, as the leadership in DC is so woefully lacking at a moment in history when we really need a good, honest, calm, unifying leader. Again, Inshallah, we will rise better and stronger…)
