Jacqueline Kamel
When I saw an image of this front page on the internet, I thought it was from 100 years ago.
And then I got my copy.
Every year on the date, the 3,000 victims of September 11th are read aloud at the World Trade Center.
It takes 3 hours.
If we were to read the names of each person who has died of Covid-19 so far, it would take over 4 days, without stopping.
It would cover each Sunday issue for over the next two years.
Today I read 1% of those names.
Each of those names was allowed half a sentence to describe them.
Half a sentence for a lifetime on the front page of The New York Times.
I picked out some of my favorites:
-“We called him the grand Poobah”
-her backyard birds ate right from her hand
-could fix almost anything
-first black woman to graduate Harvard Law school
-quick with his fists in the ring
-her will was indomitable
-he could spit a watermelon seed halfway across a double lot
-agent who turned on the CIA
-her favorite quote was ‘I am as good as you are, and as bad as I am’
-cancer survivor who lived as a deacon
-nothing delighted him more than picking up the bill
-saved 56 Jewish families from the Gestapo
-could be a real jokester
-thought it was important to know a person’s life story
-maestro of a steel-pan band
-saw friends at their worst and made them their best
-engineer behind the first 200mph stock car
-discovered his true calling when he started driving a school bus
-made the best Baklava ever
-emergency room doctor who died in his husband’s arms
-leader in integrating schools
-architect behind Boston’s City Hall
-shared his produce with food banks and neighbors
-family believed she would have lived the traditional Navajo lifespan of 102 years.
-loved his wife and said ‘yes dear’ a lot
-mother to a generation of AIDS patients
-worked long hard hours and still made time for everyone
-walked across the Golden Gate Bridge on opening day
-liked his bacon and hash browns crispy
-more adept than many knew
-would stay awake the whole night shift because she didn’t want anyone to die alone
-freed from life in prison
-her last words were ‘thank you’
.
.
.
Seven small towns I thought no one else had heard of.
Six women who reminded me of my mother.
Five people my age.
Four holocaust survivors.
Three 9/11 responders.
Two couples who died together.
One person I’ve met.
And a 5 year old girl.
They didn’t get a funeral.
They didn’t get to say goodbye.
I’ve been in my apartment for 71 days. I’ve cried four times.
Three of those times, was while I read this.
Have fun at your barbecue.