Just Promise Me We'll Be Alright

Not my photo - they frown on stopping on the Gil Hodges Bridge

It's been almost four months since Sandy changed all of our lives. My responsibilities at work have given me the opportunity to be in Rockaway every week. I now see familiar faces, notice when a porch has been removed, windows replaced or even a pile of sand taken away from the street. My friends have torn down their homes and are planning new ones. The boardwalk remains missing in action. I have had the opportunity to meet incredible people who went above and beyond their normal call of duty to serve those in the impacted neighborhoods. Like anytime New York finds itself in turmoil, people stand up, dust themselves off and get to work.

 

Communities have grown even stronger and community pride is unbreakable. This is not just in The Rockaways. Red Hook, Staten Island and Coney Island are resilient and true testaments to the strong souls who have been beaten and battered, never to give up hope.

The first week I drove around Belle Harbor, I was with a fellow emergency manager from New Orleans. He evacuated during Katrina and understood all too well the future for all the residents in the sand strewn streets were drove through. Ironically, when we were driving on Beach Channel Drive around 116th, The Ramones classic Rockaway Beach came on the radio and I actually had to pull the car off to the side of the road. It was a mixture of tears and laughter and memories torn up and washed away.

So, last night as I drove past Jacob Riis Park and onto the Gil Hodges Bridge, this song came on as I laid eyes on possibly the most clear view I had ever seen of the Manhattan skyline from the Rockaways. I could see the Empire State Building all the way to the Trade Center. A slight hint of a pink sunset was fighting to be seen. This song and these words framed my picture.

 

Ghosts That We Knew - Mumford and Sons

You saw my pain washed out in the rain
Broken glass, saw the blood run from my veins
But you saw no fault, no cracks in my heart
And you knelt beside my hope torn apart

But the ghosts that we knew will flicker from view
We'll live a long life

So give me hope in the darkness that I will see the light
'Cause oh that gave me such a fright
But I will hold as long as you like
Just promise me we'll be alright

So lead me back, turn south from that place
And close my eyes to my recent disgrace
'Cause you know my call
And we'll share my all
And our children come and they will hear me roar

So give me hope in the darkness that I will see the light
'Cause oh that gave me such a fright
But I will hold as long as you like
Just promise me we'll be alright

But hold me still, bury my heart on the coals
And hold me still, bury my heart next to yours

So give me hope in the darkness that I will see the light
'Cause oh that gave me such a fright
But I will hold on with all of my

Just promise me we'll be alright
"But the ghosts that we knew made us black and all blue
But we'll live a long life
And the ghosts that we knew will flicker from view
And we'll live a long life

This community has been punched in the gut time and again. To many, storm damage was nothing. Having to tear down a home built by hands that died on 9/11 was the challenge. One remaining memory of their friends, colleagues, brothers, father - taken by the storm. But as a collective they move on. They survive. They are Rockaway.