For 7 New Yorkers, a pandemic year's fight for future years
It had been the eve of the deadliest day of the corona virus spike that brought New York City to a trembling standstill. These were a handful of men and women carrying out what they could in the city's fight for survival, and their own. A year ago, The Associated Press informed the story of a day in the life span of a stricken city through the eyes of New Yorkers on the front lines and in quarantine as they confronted fear, tragedy, isolation and upheaval. As the United States' most populous city converted into its most lethal corona virus spot, many of these New Yorkers noticed the virus' toll close up in an er, an ambulance and a funeral home.
Others were suddenly looking from what felt like a long way away at the city and the lives they knew - a Broadway actor wondering when the curtain would rise again, a rabbi no more able to contain the hands of dying people. A taxi driver and a female owning a local meals-on-wheels program who contended with the risks and challenges of jobs which were suddenly named essential.
The AP recently returned to these New Yorkers to check out a complete year of living through the pandemic in a city which has regrouped however, not fully recovered. Like NY itself, they've endured 12 months framed by grief and fortitude, trauma and new direction, monetary and social loss, exhaustion and cautious reawakening - and both worry and hope about the future.
