Close to a couple hundred people attended the vigil at St. Helen’s. Anna Gustafson/The Forum Newsgroup
Standing shoulder to shoulder, cupping candle flames flickering in one of the colder nights this year, a couple hundred residents began to sing, their voices traveling through the space that, exactly one year ago, was filled with the water and wind that, in a few devastating hours, changed so many lives.
“Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come,” they sang, some wiping away tears as others hugged one another at the interfaith candlelit vigil commemorating the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy at St. Helen’s Tuesday night. “‘Tis grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.”
While residents said the last year has been one of the most painful periods of their lives, they stressed it was also a time that proved how strong and resilient the community is.
As their voices trailed off and “Amazing Grace” came to an end, mothers hugged daughters, friends clasped hands, elderly spouses found chairs for one another. It was a moment emblematic of an evening of reflecting on a year like no other – of remembering the pain, of the night everything changed, of losing homes and heat and electricity and so much that could never be captured in a sentence alone. And it was a moment of strength – of recognizing that you are still here, surrounded by those you love in a place that has been, and always will be, that four letter word that means so much: Home.
“Grace allowed us to go beyond ourselves,” Rev. Anthony Rucando, of Our Lady of Grace Church, said at the vigil that drew a couple hundred people and religious leaders of all walks of life. “It allowed us to be a witness to others’ needs.”
It was that message that was repeated time and again during Tuesday’s program – one that emphasized that residents who lost nearly everything so often asked not what they could do for themselves, but how they could help their neighbors.
“That night, the most beautiful thing to see was how we all came together,” said Rockwood Park Jewish Center Cantor Shuey Samuels. “…No water can separate us, no natural disaster can break our spirit.”
For those who spoke – and attended – the importance of faith was brought up time and again, with residents stressing how crucial faith has always been in their lives – and what an important role it continued to play as they dealt with sorting through shells of houses, battling insurance companies, and fighting the federal government for funds that should have come their way.
“God used the storm as a great test of your faith and mine,” said Howard Beach Assembly of God Pastor Stephen Roser. “Faith that is tested is a stronger faith.”
Donna Crockett, a Howard Beach resident who was instrumental in putting together the relief center that operated out of St. Helen’s Father Dooley Hall immediately after Sandy, spoke of a community that immediately rallied following the storm. It was inspiring, she said, to see how people jumped to help without being asked. Ragtime, for example, supplied meals for those seeking food and shelter at Dooley Hall, and Lindenwood’s Tuscany Deli and Gino’s Pizzeria in Howard Beach too consistently helped out in the aftermath of the storm.
Residents who attended the candlelit vigil said they wanted to mark the one-year anniversary with Sandy with the people who had helped them the most during, and after, the storm: Their neighbors.
“In the midst of this destruction, we found signs of hope,” Crockett said.
“Walking the road with you in the days of Sandy have provided countless grace-filled moments,” she continued.
Assistant Pastor Yvonne Rankine, of the World Harvest Deliverance Center in Far Rockaway, gave an impassioned speech at the vigil that too stressed how, in our darkest days, it is the love we show for one another that breaks down the bad – that breaks down the cold and the fear and the anger.
“We have seen our vulnerability, and we have seen our strength we didn’t know we have,” she said.
In the end, after the battles with insurance companies and the government reside, after the houses start to go back up, after the water marks are gone – it is community that remains, those at the vigil said. And, residents said, those seen in the grocery store, on the street, in cars – those are the people who, after life seemed to go dark in an instant, will continue to be there should a neighbor need them.
“I remember the fellowship hall at St. Helen’s and how chaotic it was,” said Joseph McKellar, executive director at Faith in New York. “I remember your pastor, Msgr. [Alfred] LoPinto on the phone with FEMA demanding that the people of Howard Beach get help.
“As a city, we’ve been told we need to become more resilient to future storms…but resiliency is about more than storm walls and sea barriers,” he continued. “Resiliency is about people; it’s about community.”
By Anna Gustafson
