Sixty-Something: The Sun Will Always Wonderfully Rise And Set Over The East End

It is 5 a.m. and I am huddled over my laptop as it is pouring rain right out the window next to me. In the last week I have interviewed a dozen folks about their heroic efforts to do their share in helping during this Coronavirus pandemic. It made me pause and think about how the world has changed and how vulnerable everyone on it is, and actually have always been, plus how much we need each other. The world is a family of humans, some really good and some really bad, yet all with a need to help one another to survive.

Everyday, all over the globe, the updated numbers come out all concerning the virus – those with the virus and those who have passed on. The numbers are used to track the way the virus is growing or diminishing in areas around the world. However, lost in all this pain and suffering is the joy being experienced around the world at the same time this ugly battle is being waged.

The author’s granddaughter, Juniper Rose. (Courtesy Photo)

For an example, I use my oldest daughter and her husband who had their first child and my first grandchild (4/2/2020) in the same hospital where COVID-19 is being battled. The baby girl, Juniper Rose, enters her world with quarantines and masks. There are no extended family members there to see her, hold her, celebrate her and welcome her – other than her mom and dad. She is brought home to a place where she is quarantined with no one coming to celebrate little tiny Juniper Rose’s birth. I can’t fly to see her and won’t be able to for some time because of the travel restrictions caused by the virus. Yes, at this moment in time, being born has changed too.

Sadly, my friend John lost his dad not to the virus, but to natural causes this last week. His dad, a proud Greek man, was well respected and liked, however his wake and funeral mass were all but empty due to the restrictions of the virus. I saw the photo John texted of his dad’s casket in an empty room with only him and his mom there.

Weddings have been postponed with great financial losses to the families and the venues. Young children have had their birthday parties turned into small family affairs. It’s all sad how major joyous lifetime affairs have been canceled or ruined by the protocols of fighting and defeating this wicked virus. Then there is the saddest reality of it all, those whose lives have been lost prematurely due to the virus. Gone forever are the neighbors or their relatives, musicians, actors, teachers, hospital workers, even doctors who were on the front line of the battle. It is a horrid circle of pain, suffering and death.

Now, I fast forward perhaps ten years, and I see a young beautiful Juniper Rose visiting me here on the East End, perhaps sailing with me, her grandfather. We watch together both the sunrises and the sunsets in that powerful and dramatic unique East End of Long Island way. Beautiful East End sunrises and sunsets makes us all look and marvel day and night. I have always said while watching amazing sunsets, I feel my dad and mom’s soul out there within the big colorful sky. In fact, I can feel the soul of all those who once lived on this earth and perhaps the souls of those who will live on this earth. I know one day Juniper Rose will understand and experience this special feeling too.