In 2020, at the start of the Lockdown in NYC, people took to applauding our essential workers at 7pm. This entailed people playing their trumpets, or hitting pots and pans, or just clapping outside their windows or on their balconies. We’d all seen similar images coming first from Italy — people singing to each other across the air, but the alleys below were empty. And now, we were doing this in New York, where the crawls at the bottom of our TV screens were dire amidst images of refrigerated trucks parked outside hospitals.

I live at Manhattan Plaza at 43rd Street, which is two high buildings, one on 9th Avenue and the other on 10th with a plaza in-between. Our residents are mostly actors, musicians, playwrights, seniors, etc. As the pandemic took hold, our buildings took part in the ritual. It was great to “connect” with my neighbors, many of whom I didn’t know, from 7-7:15pm every night.

Often our banging became music …

As time passed, less and less people continued the 7pm ritual, but I noticed that there were still people doing it outside, not just from windows, out on the Plaza. I decided to go down and join this group. We kept our distance, wore our masks, and banged away outside, come rain or shine.

Sometimes it was freezing and snowing but still we showed up. We called ourselves ‘The Social Distancenaires’ and ‘We Clap Because We Care’. We soon started to get to know each other and even began to party afterwards, celebrating each other’s birthdays and other milestones, etc. Most importantly, we got to know each other and keep tabs on one another. When one of us was in hospital (not for Covid) we took turns visiting and calling. When I did a show way downtown, most of them came to it!

It’s February 2022 now, two years later, but we persist, we show up. The building is doing construction on the Plaza so we’re constricted to one walkway yet we make it work. We’re all triple-vaxxed but still Omicron got me between Xmas and New Year’s and recently several of our group members also got it. Thankfully, none had to go to the hospital.

Because things like Broadway are opening up, it’s often hard for all of us to be there at 7 every night yet there’s somehow always a “minion” or close to one! Every night at 7 until 7:05 pm we bang and chant and sing and shout THANK YOU to all our Essential Workers.

Why we’re still clapping together is hard to say. Early on in the pandemic, I did lose two friends to Covid-19 and another is still with us but was terribly compromised, so, like many New Yorkers, this is personal for me. I feel like I’m clapping for the people who may have helped my friends. I think we are so thankful to all those around who never stopped working and sacrificed their own safety during the pandemic, whether they’re doctors or nurses or food delivery or maintenance … Where would we all be without them? Where would we be?

We welcome our newest grandchild, Thomas Alexander.

I say “we” because I like to think my husband Mike is somewhere, seeing over his ever expanding family. Mike passed April 14, 2020 from Covid and in that time he has missed the birth of four grandchildren. The other three were so young that they wouldn’t even remember him. Mike would bore the hell out of anyone who he stopped to show beautiful pictures of his grandchildren. They are all going to grow up missing someone very special.

I miss your call today. I miss how every birthday you would find a way to make it special. We grew up limited to resources, but you alway made it happen. You always came home with a cake and some food. You always made sure we had a cake. I don’t know how, but you did.

As adults, you made sure we got a call from you and a lunch out. I miss you dad. I miss you so much. Today is the first birthday without you on earth. I am mad you were taken away. I am mad that COVID is still here and you’re gone. I am sad that I can’t hug you today. I am sad that I can’t call you and hear your voice. Today I will take flowers to your resting place. I want you to know that you mean the world to me. Happy Valentine’s Day, dad. I know you’re wishing me a happy birthday from heaven.

I’m missing my husband Gene so much this Super Bowl Sunday. He was a die-hard Jets fan ( his license plate was GO JETZ ) and hoped that they would make it to the big game before he passed. They did not.

Regardless of who’s playing this year, we would have been watching it at home together. I’ll be watching it alone, thinking of Gene every minute, remembering all the games we watched. I love you sweetheart, Go Jets!

My Mama loved Valentine’s Day and loved my daughter Sophia who was born on my Mama’s birthday. They had this special bond and we only lived a few miles apart. Every Valentine’s Day she would hand make a Valentine card and the two of them would make heart-shaped sugar cookies with pink icing and my Mom always gave my daughter a small heart shaped box filled with candy.

As my Mom approached her 80’s, the rheumatoid arthritis in her hands prevented her from making cookies but she always made sure she went to the bakery and bought Sophia a pink cupcake. My Mom would also write a poem to my daughter. How I wish my Mama was still alive to see my daughter graduate from nursing school. My Mama was a school nurse when I was growing up and I know she would have been so proud to see her receive her BSN. Sophia and I talk every day and share our favorite memories with her Nana.