{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/qz22b8ww3w/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Barry Joseph Oral History"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/010/original/Aviary_QPLlogo_192x192.png?1578574261","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSummary of Full Interview\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eForest Hills resident Barry Joseph describes how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted his family during the six-month time period from March through December 2020. Specifically, Joseph details losing his father to COVID-19 in April, including his father's hospitalization, communicating with his father via videoconferencing during his father's final days, and observing the Jewish mourning ritual of sitting shivah via videoconferencing rather than in-person.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eJoseph explains how he, his wife, and their two children have coped with the pandemic, including spending part of their summer in the Catskills region. Additionally, Joseph explains how life in Forest Hills has been affected by the adjacent neighborhood Kew Gardens Hills, particularly regarding large in-person gatherings and lack of mask wearing by Orthodox Jewish populations.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSubsequent to this interview, Barry Joseph wrote the book \u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://fridayistomorrow.com/\"\u003eFriday is Tomorrow\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e which further documents his experiences during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.\u003c/p\u003e (supplement)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eCC BY-NC-SA Contact digitalarchives@queenslibrary.org for research and reproduction requests.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Source Metadata URI"]},"value":{"en":["http://digitalarchives.queenslibrary.org/search/browse/41030"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2020-12-18 (created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Type"]},"value":{"en":["Audio"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Barry Joseph (Interviewee)","Fran Kipnis (Interviewer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Coverage"]},"value":{"en":["2020 (temporal)","Forest Hills, Kew Gardens Hills, and Corona, Queens, NY; Catskill Mountains, NY (spatial)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSummary of Full Interview\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eForest Hills resident Barry Joseph describes how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted his family during the six-month time period from March through December 2020. Specifically, Joseph details losing his father to COVID-19 in April, including his father's hospitalization, communicating with his father via videoconferencing during his father's final days, and observing the Jewish mourning ritual of sitting shivah via videoconferencing rather than in-person.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003eJoseph explains how he, his wife, and their two children have coped with the pandemic, including spending part of their summer in the Catskills region. Additionally, Joseph explains how life in Forest Hills has been affected by the adjacent neighborhood Kew Gardens Hills, particularly regarding large in-person gatherings and lack of mask wearing by Orthodox Jewish populations.\u003c/p\u003e","\u003cp\u003eSubsequent to this interview, Barry Joseph wrote the book \u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://fridayistomorrow.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"\u003eFriday is Tomorrow\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/strong\u003e\u0026nbsp;which further documents his experiences during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.\u003c/p\u003e"]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eCC BY-NC-SA Contact digitalarchives@queenslibrary.org for research and reproduction requests.\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Queens Public Library"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Queens Public Library"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/010/original/Aviary_QPLlogo_192x192.png?1578574261","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/209/275/small/Barry_Joseph_Photo_aviary.jpg?1695993916","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - Barry_Joseph_12-18-20_audio_onlyradio_edit.mp3"]},"duration":2574.65469,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/209/275/small/Barry_Joseph_Photo_aviary.jpg?1695993916","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-queenslibrary.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/209/275/original/Barry_Joseph_12-18-20_audio_onlyradio_edit.mp3?1695929895","type":"Audio","format":"audio/mpeg","duration":2574.65469,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Full Transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: My name is Barry Joseph. First name Barry, B A R R Y. Last name Joseph, J O S E P H.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=0.0,8.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Fran Kipnis: Okay. And I have to do the same. My name is Fran, F R A N. And the last name is Kipnis, K I P N I S. And Barry, your age?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=8.0,21.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: I am, I got to think, 51 years old.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=21.0,25.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Fran Kipnis: Okay. So now we'll get started and let's just start with some general questions. So if you can talk a little bit about, you know, where you live, your family, your household, and your work. So just give us a little background on yourself right now.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=25.0,42.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: So it is December 18th, it's the end of the year, end of 2020. I live in my apartment, in a co-op, which is a building that has four different elevator towers. It's a few hundred buildings here. Wonderful. 24 hour doorman, a garage downstairs - is a very, very wonderful and feel, very privileged place to live in. I'm here in the apartment - it's a three bedroom apartment, two bathrooms with my wife and my two kids. My kids, my daughter is 11. My son is 14. They, were both, prevented from going to school, starting in March. And were not inside a school building until October. So all schooling happened at home during that time. And we can talk more about what happened since then, if we want. My wife works part-time at a place that she's worked at for many, many years.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=42.0,98.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: And both of us, when the pandemic started, were in careers that allowed us to work remotely. So we quickly pivoted to working from home and we're able to be home, do our work successfully from home and still be here with our kids. The place where I worked had workforce reductions due to the pandemic in September, which was expected since May. And about 15 to 20% of us were let go as part of that. And I quickly pivoted and started my own consultancy company, which has been quite successful, working full-time on my own, you know, client work as a result. The work I did before was at Girl Scouts of the USA. I was VP of digital experience, which meant I was helping the organization understand how to create the most seamless experience in the digital space for its customers, the girls, their parents, and the troop leaders across the scores of different digital products and services that are provided at a national level. And my consultancy is in a similar vein - helping non-profits, museums and others, think about what digital engagement looks like, not just during the pandemic, but after as well.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=98.0,169.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Fran Kipnis: Wow, that sounds great. And let's talk a little bit about how your family is handling all this and what was it like to pivot to all of you working at home and schooling from home. What was that like?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=169.0,187.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: My daughter said two things last week. When we were driving back home from having left the city to go to a sculpture garden so we can get outside and see some friends, you know, in a safe way in the garden. And she was reflecting on where we were at in a year. And she said it was amazing. It's amazing to think back that in April, we were like, Holy Cow, we've been doing this for three weeks. How can we even do this for another week, right? And then by June it was like, Oh, we've done this for a few months. How could we even do this for a few more months? And then she was doing the math, literally March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November. We were now nine months in. And she was kind of amazed looking back at how hard it had seemed to make that transition and yet look at where we were now and we're still doing it and doing it so successfully. So smoothly and adjusted to it and not thinking about the challenges in the same way we were before. And that was interesting to hear.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=187.0,237.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: And then the next thing she said was that a friend of hers, one of her best friends, who they've become close, they were close before, but really they, you know, they're now together all the time through digital media, since the pandemic started. She said they were out, they'd gotten a bagel at the store and they sat in the park on different benches to eat and they were chatting and they said their generation is going to grow up to be, let me get the phrase right. They are going to be a generation that can grow up to be depressed homophobes, no, not homophobe, excuse me, germaphobes. They're going to be a generation. They're going to be a generations, grew up to be depressed germaphobes.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=237.0,286.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: And we reflected with her about it and said, yeah, they're going to be germaphobes because they're gonna be so hypersensitive to how one gets sick. Right? And when she said depressed, I said, do you mean depressed or do you mean anxious? Because you're going to get sick somewhere. And she says, yeah, we mean anxious. You are going to be anxious, germaphobes all the time. And you know, the two of them were talking about it and she was sharing that with us. And what we reflected back to her was maybe, you might be, you know, more anxious and have some, we didn't say the words post traumatic stress you're gonna have to deal with. But we said, you know, you will look back at this, the whole rest of your life, no matter what you deal with. And you'll say, you know what? We got through this during the pandemic, this isn't as hard as that.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=286.0,327.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: We know we can do this too. And it's going to make you feel capable and confident and have a sense of resiliency that you otherwise wouldn't have had. And we hope that that's something you'll be able to take from this. And you'll be a generation that will feel like you could do anything. Cause you survived the pandemic, you got through it. So you can, you're gonna make the world be the way you want. And I don't know if that's true or not, but that was very much the way we felt just a few weeks ago. Because back in the beginning it felt like Holy Cow, how are we going to do this for a few weeks? And then, Oh my gosh, summer camp has to happen. Both kids are going to go to sleep away camp, at least we're going to have that as a release.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=327.0,363.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: Listen, we can, you know, we can buckle down in April. We can buckle down in May. But if we know come June that we're going to have summer camp. And then we'll know we did what we had to do to bring, bring the curve down and we'll get the relief as parents that we need. The kids will get the social contact that they need. And then when summer camps were all canceled, it felt like this, this is hell, how are we ever going to get through this? But we did. The summer camps were Jewish. Summer camps are very important in the Jewish community. They are a part of a tradition, both in a secular and religious way. In our family had been for both my wife and I and for my kids. They pivoted very fast and very creatively, creating online ways to experience what, what one gets from camp.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=363.0,415.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: The connection with one's peers, connections with kind of really energetic, excited college students or your counselors. Be kind of, I don't want to say learning because it's camp, but the kind of engagement around youth interests and developing them and building them. And they figured out ways to do it all different, all in different ways. And one of my most recent projects was actually studying what camps did over the summer. The Jewish camps and it was amazing what they did. And so we had to keep a spreadsheet, hour by hour of which Zoom link or whatever it was to click to - for which kid, and we would schedule on which day, and it was exhausting, but the kids got to have that experience. And it wasn't a sleep away camp, they didn't gets to leave home that, they really didn't get to physically leave the home for most of the camp.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=415.0,459.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: But then my daughter's day camp that she was going to do part of the summer was supporting the children of health care workers in the spring, and had figured out what they had to do to make safe spaces for these kids to have daycare. So their parents could go be, you know, nurses and doctors and whatnot. And they used what they learned and said, you know what, we're going to do summer camp, we're going to still do it. And many people thought we were crazy, especially given how, you know, our own concerns were about how much we were keeping our family safe and restricting ourselves in our activities. But we, we felt we could trust them and we did. And so my daughter got to do five weeks of in-person day camp this summer. And it was maybe 10% or 15% of the size of what it normally would have been cause they had to consolidate it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=459.0,504.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: But it went from her kind of spending every day in the dark in her room under her covers on her phone. You know, maybe talking to her friends or making TikTok - to now she was out every day being social and being physically active and getting her exercise in and having her interest addressed and giving her a really satisfaction, giving her a well-rounded experience that we just couldn't do any more at home. It made a big difference. The other big things we did - we left in June when it was clear that schools weren't going to open back up and neither one of us were going to need to go into our offices. Both of our offices had made it clear that the whole rest of the year would be closed and no one would need to come in, we rented a place in the Catskills.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=504.0,557.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: And I'll say why in a moment why we could, but we spent funds that we normally would never spend. It wasn't a vacation place, although one could go there for vacation. My kids were still in school, my wife and I were working every day, but I could work outside on the porch, looking out at the lake. And as soon as work was over, my wife could go hiking in the woods. And on the weekend we didn't have to decide to drive a few hours. We could just, you know, get in the car. And 20 minutes away, there was a beautiful lake to go swimming in. And it was transformative and it was a blessing to get to experience that. And it brought sanity back into our lives. And that led to us realizing, once we knew what the kids' schedules would look like over the summer, that we should go back and we did the same thing in August. And we spent a month in the same area and arranged now, because it was vacation time, to do a vacation and to coordinate with all of our family.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=557.0,608.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: For them to do what we needed them to do. And we would do what they needed us to do. And we made bubbles and we got to hug my mother-in-law, the kid's grandmother for the first time and be with her for a week. My sister, hadn't seen her in person since February. My wife's sister's family and they have two kids the same age as my kids, the cousins, they came up for a week. And it was amazing. And that was the beginning of a, somewhat of a transition from everything being so locked up to like, oh, we can see each other if we do things in certain way. We can eat at restaurants by eating outside. And that was a nice transition. So this is a long answer to your question but giving you a sense of the scope of things.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=608.0,651.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: But what I left out is my dad died in April. He had COVID, he was in the hospital for two weeks and he passed and he was elderly. And not infirmed enough that he couldn't live in an assisted living facility. He can live in his own apartment with my stepmom and go down for activities and go down for meals. But was, you know, close to the point that he wouldn't be able to live in that facility and needed to go into more of a nursing home type place. So I don't want to suggest that he was, you know, someone who you know, even though he's older, that he was really strong in his health, he wasn't. He went to the hospital in March during COVID, because he'd fallen and, injured himself pretty badly.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=651.0,698.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: And it felt really crazy to be at the hospital. It was way before the spike. It was like the week after schools had closed. But we also were highly aware we were in a place that's full of COVID - that the COVID is coming here. So the hospital wasn't overwhelmed yet, but we knew that we were bringing him into a place with COVID, which seemed crazy. As context, so when he went back to the hospital a month later, we thought it was just a continuation of things he'd already been dealing with and perhaps it was, but, they tested him and he had COVID. We watched him just deteriorate day after, day after day. And it was heartbreaking and shocking because, you know, part of the things we now know from COVID is how fast it happens.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=698.0,739.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: But also the change was so fast. He had a fever when he was at the assisted living facility, also in Forest Hills. He couldn't maintain his balance. And once he got to the hospital, the fever went away, it seemed like it was going in the right direction, but it wasn't. It was not what COVID was doing for him. And within a week it was very difficult for him to communicate at all. And shortly after that - he never needed to be intubated, which is good and lucky for everybody. But he did need a breathing mask and that meant he couldn't communicate clearly anymore. And it became less clear that he could hear and comprehend what was going on around him. We were still hopeful and maybe hopeful beyond evidence that it wasn't COVID. Because we were being told by some people that it doesn't look like COVID to me.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=739.0,790.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: He's just - there was a term for it, for when you're in the hospital. You just - if nothing's happening, you start doing bad because you're in bed all the time and it's depressing and you can't, especially now, you couldn't see anybody. So we hoped it was just that. And we actually had him discharged to a nursing home back in the neighborhood that could help him transition back. So we thought he was going back, but once he was there just a few hours, they said, no, this is not going to work. We need to send him back to the hospital. He's going to die. We can't do anything about it. And, he's not, he doesn't need to die here. It needs to be in a place that could take care of him during that time.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=790.0,829.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: So that was, really distressing but also clarifying. So on Thursday he was discharged, on Friday he was at the nursing home facility, on Saturday they said, we're sending him back. And on Sunday, the doctors called and said his liver was so bad that unless they did something drastic, which one wouldn't recommend, [unclear] have hours if not days left. So it all happened very, very fast. And so then from that Sunday to that Wednesday, when he passed on the Wednesday, we knew we were on a death watch essentially. And we had dealt with the realities of the fact that we couldn't go in and see him, that we weren't allowed into the hospital. That once, he was about to die, they said we could come in, but what would that mean?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=829.0,877.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: Once I went in there, what was I going to do? I've now exposed myself to COVID. I can't go back into the home. There's nowhere else I can stay for two weeks. There's no way my family could manage without - again, this is at the beginning, those first few weeks - being here, managing everything. So what we figured out was to get an iPad in. I had an iPad and the long story, shorter on the iPad, not going into everything about how my dad is hard of hearing and the challenges of getting technology to work in the hospitals, was when he was physically being moved out of the nursing home to go back to the hospital. Now, the second time, I met him there coming out of the building, and I met the people driving the ambulance so I can coordinate and keep the iPad with him.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=877.0,931.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: I put a message on the back. I taped it. I said, this is his name. This is my name. Please connect it on the network. And not only did I get to see him, those are the last times I saw him going into that ambulance. Then coming out of the ambulance. The ambulance driver said we could follow. I could follow them. So I just got to, you know, run the red lights and speed on the highway and then just go right to the hospital door with him. He then got to be wheeled into the emergency room with the iPad. And I then called the emergency room staff and said, there's an iPad with him. Can you get it on the network and chat? And before long, actually I think before my message even got through, a nurse, saw it, got it on the wifi network for the hospital, Long Island Jewish.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=931.0,970.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: And there he was, and we could speak. And when I say speak, I mean, he could hear me and I could talk to him and they could set it up. And so from that Sunday through the Wednesday my time was spent contacting the nursing staff saying, Oh, can you please call now? And then they would set up the iPad and just leave it there. And then, you know, I could talk to him as long as I wanted to, and then I would just hang up and then they would just put it away. So I, on one hand had very limited access to him because I couldn't come in person. But through the iPad, I had tremendous access and I got to do things that I couldn't have done otherwise. And whenever I was free, I could call and just spend 10 minutes with him or spend a few hours.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=970.0,1010.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: And you know, if you've ever been in a situation like this, or anybody reading or listening to this would know, you run out of things to talk about pretty quickly, especially if the other person can't talk. And it could feel awkward and you just want them to know you're there with them, but if their eyes are closed and you're not sure if they can tell you are there, your voice is really the only thing that you can do to keep reaching out to somebody, especially bcause I couldn't physically hold his hand. So I know I need to talk to him. So what I found was a book of poetry that I had in my home. This was a book of poetry that he had gotten when he lived back on Long Island and was on the board of the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association, which is Walt Whitman's house in Huntington.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1010.0,1054.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/27","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: And while there, a poet, he was the national poet laureate at the time. He had come and spoken and signed one of his books and gave it to him. He had that book in his collection of books when he lived also by me in Forest Hills. And when it came time to move into the assisted living facility, he had to get rid of, you know, 90% of his books. And so he chose a few he wanted. The rest were to be given away. And I thought, you know what, let me take some of the poetry books and see what it's like. And so I grabbed this one book and I kept it by my bedside table and I really loved it because the poet really speaks in very straight language because he wants to be understood. He wants to speak to you conversationally.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1054.0,1094.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/28","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: And he really takes these really evocative images of what his life was like at one moment at a time. And so I'd read one or two before I would do my regular bedtime reading. And so I had it by my bedside for maybe six months, because I would just read the one and then eventually I put them in on the bookshelf in the living room, which is where I was when I was talking to my dad on the phone when he was in the hospital. So I said, you know what, let me grab one of these, you know, whether he ever read or not, I don't know, but I knew that the poet meant a lot to him. And I knew some of the poems because I enjoyed them. So I started reading the poems to him. And I found it was a really wonderful way to, read a poem to him, it gave me something to say.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1094.0,1136.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/29","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: The ones that were my favorite, I could say, Oh, here's one I love - the [unclear] one is great. And then I would explain why I love them. And once I started doing that and kind of doing this kind of poem criticism, many of the poems reminded me about him and his life, and what it meant for me to have him and a dad like him in my life. And so the poems that became something I could share with him and then tell him my thoughts on it, but then they became like the conversation starters - one side of course - for me to then talk about his life and say the things that I might not have been able to say to him, or might not have thought to say to him.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1136.0,1175.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/30","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: And by the time I got towards the end of the book of poems, they were more about like reflecting on our lives. Now I knew it, you know, his death was coming soon and it really gave me the vehicle that I needed to talk with him about his death and about how much we miss him and how much he meant to us. And there weren't others in my family who felt like they could be there and spend that kind of time with him. So I was the one there speaking for all of us on our behalf about what an impact he had and while I was doing and hoping that I was saying the things that he needed to hear, because I wasn't getting the feedback. And then by the time we got to the last few poems again, I'm sorry I had never mentioned, I never finished the book of poems.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1175.0,1212.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/31","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: I always kept them by my bedside and I hadn't had it. So I didn't know what was coming. I'd only done like about a half, because I'd cycle back and read my favorites. Now I was just reading them from beginning to end. And as we got to the last few, they were about passing. They were about death and were about letting go. And they were explicitly talking about, you know, what he was going through, as the poet was imagining these themes in different ways. And in the view that I have, is him lying in the bed. His face, his upper torso, he's got, his eyes are closed, he's got this mask on and the mask is attached to a little bag and the bag would fill up with oxygen because it was feeding him extra oxygen and then it would compress and when it was compressed it would kind of push it into - no, I think, when he would breathe, it would suck it in and then the machine would then fill it back up.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1212.0,1266.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/32","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: So it was this, I wouldn't hear the sound of his breathing. I hear the [makes sound], the sound effect of the thing being filled up. And then, when it would compress and over and over, which is less of a mechanical and more of an organic sound, but it was the plastic that I would hear. And so I could see the speed at which he was breathing. So it would slow down when he would fall asleep. And I could see that, but I noticed on the Wednesday, that he was slowing down more and more in the spaces between the thing filling up and compressing was less and less. And I noticed when I was reading the second to last poem, that it stopped, it stopped filling up or was filled up and it stopped being pulled in. And I started having - I'm in the middle of reading of him the poem, but I'm also thinking, Oh my gosh, does that mean what I think it means like, I don't really know technically what this is all about.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1266.0,1309.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/33","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: And then I figured, well best is just to keep reading. So then I read the last poem and it was about death. And after that, it had now been a few minutes - and it was clear to me that he had stopped breathing at that point. And I got to see that his passing was painless - that it was, it was calm. There was no panic, there was no anxiety, there was no pain. And maybe he knew I was there. Maybe he didn't, maybe he could hear me. Maybe he couldn't, I don't know. But it's possible he knew that I was there and it was possible that my voice and the poems were the bridge that he needed.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1309.0,1349.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/34","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Fran Kipnis: Right. And what kept him calm. What kept it calm and not panicking. That's, that's an amazing story. Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1349.0,1358.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/35","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: So I stayed on the iPad. I wanted to stay in the room. And then on my phone, I called the nurse station and I told them, I think my dad just passed away and then I'm there on the iPad. And so I was in the room when they came in and when they tried to figure out his time of death, and I told them exactly when the time of death was, and, of course they gave me their condolences. So I stayed there with the staff, with him, until they did what they needed to do. And then my sister found an organization that had been working to get iPads, refurbished iPads, into hospitals, for people, for just these reasons. I felt very, you know, again, very privileged financially to be able to take an iPad and just, you know, have it go to the hospital and we didn't need it for schooling and, you know, hope I got it back, but nothing was going to kill us if it didn't.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1358.0,1406.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/36","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: But many people don't have those resources or the technical abilities to know what to do with it. And so this whole organization was all about getting iPads into hospitals in New York so people could connect with their loved ones who were suffering from COVID. And so we not only donated the iPad to that, but at the funeral, which I can talk about, we asked people to donate to them. Thousands of dollars were donated that paid for, you know, scores of iPads that went into hospitals around New York City to help others. And it felt really meaningful to us.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1406.0,1435.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/37","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Fran Kipnis: And it sounds like the staff at the hospital, the nurses were really accommodating to that and helpful around that.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1435.0,1444.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/38","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: The nurses and the staff in the hospital were amazing because no one knew what was going on and they were overwhelmed and they were seeing numbers of multiples of patients, you know, two times, three times, four times the amount that they're used to seeing - and were heroes from top to bottom. There's no question. The medical system is a mess and trying to figure out how to navigate it from the outside. It's not designed to be navigated from the outside. Their job is to take care of the patients. It's not to take care of the families, so not being able to go in, in person, having to figure out when to call, what time to call, who to talk to, how to get what you need for yourself, for the patient. The whole system is a nightmare.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1444.0,1489.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/39","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: And I say this, not wanting to complain about them at all, because it was a nightmare before, and those individuals were all heroic and did tremendous things to help. But it becomes a full-time job just trying to do anything, getting a phone in his room that had a speaker phone, getting a device he could work with, getting someone to go in and turn it on, turn it off. It could take hours, could take hours to do just one thing while I'm trying to also, you know, do my job full-time, which I'm working overtime at and manage the kids who were both home. It's a mess. And yet, you know, they're heroes, and couldn't have done it without them. And I, want to recognize that at the same time, but I don't want to be Pollyannish about it. The medical system is, broken.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1489.0,1537.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/40","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Fran Kipnis: I did see the article you wrote about sitting Shivah over Zoom. Can you talk a little bit about that? That was beautiful.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1537.0,1546.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/41","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: Sure. So I am unusual. I am 50 plus years old, and I have been on computers and versions of the internet since I was 12. So we're talking early eighties. I am someone who is not working in the tech space, but have always used those things in my personal life and brought into my professional life when I can. All just to say, I'm very comfortable in the digital space, you know. If you thought about like the person who was like the hardest person, the last person you imagine to get on Zoom during the pandemic, who you thought was like the biggest Luddite or technically incompetent, whatever. I am the opposite person, like I live in that space. So it was very, very easy for me, from the Wednesday when my dad died, to know that the funeral and arranged for the Friday's funeral to be all online and to read - conceive of what sitting Shivah would look like for the family in a way would be technically meaningful.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1546.0,1604.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/42","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: And to pull it off really quick. I don't say this to brag, but I say it just to understand, like why I was able to do it so fast. Just what I know. And I know the people in my life who were the same, who could, and I was very fortunate, step up and help. So the Shivah period happens immediately after the funeral and in my reform tradition that means it's three days of opening up the doors. Anybody can come, who wants to, they're bringing in food and cookies and we sit and chat with each other and the clergy come and there'll be some prayers that we'll do at a certain point, but otherwise there's no specific thing that has to happen. It's just people getting together and grieving. And the people we're talking about here, the key ones are my sister who lives in the city, my step sister who lives close by, and my step-mom who also lives in Forest Hills.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1604.0,1647.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/43","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: And then all the other, you know, relatives and friends you might imagine. None of that could happen. None of us could get together in person. We couldn't get together at the funeral. We couldn't get together at the cemetery. We couldn't have the clergy at the cemetery in person. So the idea to have people just casually hanging out eating food is just ridiculous. Some people during this time were just like, we'll have an hour on Zoom and everyone just come together. That's, that's completely ineffective. It's completely exhausting. You can't see all the faces. You aren't really connecting with anybody. And so I knew that wasn't going to work. But what I knew could work is meeting in small groups and my step-mom couldn't do it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1647.0,1702.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/44","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: But my sister could. So I knew if my sister and I could meet with, you know, four to eight people at a time for 20 minutes, that might give us the space that we're looking for to let people give us their condolences, to make meaningful connections during this time, to grieve together, to share stories, but, but not be overwhelmed. And so what we arranged was a place where anyone can go to sign up. We figured out how many hours we could handle, which was something like, you know, five hours after the funeral and seven hours on the Saturday and Sunday that followed. We asigned, this is the time with clergy where we needed at least a certain number of people to say the prayers, but otherwise here's some slots fill them up. And if they're filled, pick another one.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1702.0,1747.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/45","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: And so dozens, scores of people, maybe we had 60. No, that's not right. If we had a hundred, over a hundred people, sign up. And we had friends who signed up to be the hosts. So what you would experience, if it was you coming, you'd go to the spreadsheet and figure out your time, okay, you're going to come in at three o'clock on Saturday, and then someone would email you, one of my contacts - one of my good friends, that would say, you're coming at three o'clock on Saturday, and here's the link for you. And then you'd click on that link at three o'clock on the Saturday. And you'd see my friend and another friend, who'd welcome you. Make sure your audio and video is working for you. And then if you said, yep, it's all good.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1747.0,1786.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/46","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: And they would hit a button and send you into - in Zoom it's called a breakout room where my sister and I were waiting. And my sister and I would be there and maybe be you and your spouse and kids, and maybe two other people who signed up for that time. And then we just, we chatted. And then, you know, it was small enough that we could all see each other and, and connect. And then, 18 minutes in, that person who greeted you pops in and says two minutes left, and then they would leave. And then two minutes later, you know, some of the times people would say, you know, okay, it's time to go. And then they would leave. Or the person would come back and say, okay, time to go. And then they would kick them out politely. And my sister and I would sit, stay, and now you're done. Right. But now my sister and I would say, we'd have 10 minutes or five minutes, depending on how things were to be like, okay, I gotta go to the bathroom or I got to get a bite to eat.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1786.0,1829.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/47","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: Or that was the stupidest story I ever heard. What's wrong with that person. Or that was amazing. I couldn't believe it ever happened. Holy cow. Did you know that? And so we got to, you know, keep reconnecting with each other and then, ping, five, 10 minutes later, a new group would come in. And it allowed us to really organize in a really manageable way, these moments of deep connection with our family and friends and those of my dad and with people who would never have been able to come because they were all over the country. You know, didn't have to travel and it felt deeply meaningful. And, very, I felt very fortunate that we could do this, that I had all these friends that, could step up and help us out. I think we had 14 people helping us out over the three days and one person running the whole thing.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1829.0,1882.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/48","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: And helping us during the time that was especially difficult for grieving because it was during the pandemic. And during the early days, this was the peak, he died during the peak, in April. And I then advised many other people over the next six months. I wrote about it online in two different places, but also people I know, knew I went through it and of course other people lost other people, other Jews. And I told them what we did and everyone adapted what they needed in their own way. And then a few weeks later when we hit a hundred thousand deaths in the country, the New York Times picked one of every 10 people. So they picked a thousand people to represent a hundred thousand and they put a few lines of their obituaries from all over the country.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1882.0,1925.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/49","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: On the front page of the Times. The entire front page was just mini obits, which then continued for three more pages inside. And then online, it was this giant scrolling thing you could go through. And they selected my dad to be one of the, you know, one of the thousands. I was [unclear], one of the ones who died during that time. In part, because based on the excerpt they kept, he had worked for the CDC for a few years before he became a pediatrician. And he was a family pediatrician for over 30 years. But he fought, he was in the Philippines fighting cholera and doing other things with the CDC as well. And we made sure to mention that in the obit, because we're proud not only of his history, but also because people now appreciate and understood what it meant to work for the CDC at the height of the pandemic.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1925.0,1972.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/50","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: And I think that must've caught the eyes of the editors of the Times. And as such, it kind of made him stand out from 909, 900 people who died that day. And at that point, it was hard not to say, okay, my dad represents one of the hundred thousand people - is one of the hundred thousand people - who died from COVID. Because when he passed, I felt, and you might've noticed this from the way I framed this in the beginning, he was already infirmed. He was quite old. The last few years of his life, every time I saw him, I didn't know if it was the last one. And I counted every time that we were together as extra and special. And I expect that he might go sometime soon.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=1972.0,2012.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/51","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: When my mom died, it was a painful death in the early nineties from ovarian cancer and battled going in and out of comas. And it was awful. And I knew my dad, if he had to go to a nursing home, would be depressed and it would just be awful, humiliating, and it could be prolonged last phase of his life, he didn't have that. He got to do - there's things he didn't get through his death. He didn't have us there in person, but it could have been so much worse. So I felt like he happened to die during COVID. He died probably because of COVID. But I didn't want to feel like COVID killed him. Like, it didn't feel like the way I felt about it. He had his own personal story, so I wanted it to be his own personal story. But once he was in the New York Times, and he was representing one of a thousand people, he was there as one of a hundred thousand people who had died.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=2012.0,2065.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/52","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: I was like, okay, that's going to be the story moving forward. You know he died because of COVID. He died the way he did because of COVID. He died when he did, because of COVID and we mourned and, remembering him in a way that we can because of COVID. And that was why I didn't get to see my sister in person, even though she lives here pretty close in New York City, until August, because she couldn't handle the idea of getting together with me without getting to hug me. And it wasn't until we were figuring out how to create our bubble by getting tested and keeping some distance after we were tested. So we could actually get together in person, ironically, outside of New York City, up in this place, in the Catskills, where we could stay together for a week and be together.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=2065.0,2108.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/53","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Fran Kipnis: We only have a few minutes left, because I know you have to get off at noon, but tell me - I mean, that's an amazing story - just a little bit about your experience in Forest Hills and what the neighborhood has been like from the beginning and what it's like now. Just describe a little bit, you're so great at describing things. Tell us what it's like.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=2108.0,2131.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/54","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: Thank you. It's, it's really complicated. Living in, jeez, you know, so I live in New York City in Forest Hills, but you don't live just in your community, in New York City. You know, there the lines are permeable and you move around. But of course I stopped moving around with the pandemic. So the hotspot, you know, for, COVID, in New York was Corona, which is five miles away from me. I can walk there in like 20 minutes. That's where the hospitals were overloaded. That's where all the news about New York City hospitals were being overwhelmed and people were dying, they couldn't get in or whatever. That was right there. And yet that's not here, right? I'm looking out the window right now. And I could probably see buildings that are in Corona, but that isn't here. So there are things that could be close that aren't affecting us.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=2131.0,2189.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/55","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: The park - but we live next to a park, a playground, basketball court. It's pretty large, a few acres. It slowly started closing. They told people to stop playing basketball. They kept playing basketball. They took off the nets, they kept playing basketball. They padlocked the park, right. And that closed the park for everyone. So we got to slowly see that happen. I think that happened end of April, early May, and then it was closed. It was locked. You couldn't get in. We have the sounds of the park, come up to us, kids running around screaming, ice cream truck, people playing basketball, whatever, all day. And it's part of what we love about being here. It was dead silent. And that silence kind of represented where the City was at back in, late April, back in May, back when people at seven o'clock would go out on their balconies every night and cheer. And thank the medical workers who were transitioning.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=2189.0,2235.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/56","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: And we would all then see each other on all of our balconies and rooftops and at our windows. And that was the most we saw each other at that time. Things had changed when we left in June, we came back in July, no one was going out at seven o'clock any more. The parks were open again. But by and large, I felt people were being thoughtful wearing masks, not everybody, but most people were. And then left again in August, came back in September and in September, we started hearing about communities that were not being as responsible and unlike Corona, which was close, but not impacting us, the other ones are close and were impacting us. And these are communities like Kew Gardens Hills and others which had large Orthodox communities, which were publicly and brazenly refusing to follow guidelines.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=2235.0,2283.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/57","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: They were getting together in large numbers. There was one just a few weeks ago that had like 10,000 people squished together at a funeral. And while that doesn't directly affect me because they're next door, they're not here - we were surrounded by them, the community physically, geographically located. So when it came time for the State to decide what to do, they closed the entire circle with us in the middle. So we went from our daughter, finally getting to go to school in October, to a week later, it being closed because they closed everything in the area. And they lost that battle in the Supreme Court. The State did, it's quite a complicated and quite a complex issue. So suddenly at that time, you know, back in, let me remember a moment, we're talking about during the High Holidays, me going out, to get the, for breaking the fast and go to get some bagels and some lox and seeing everybody wearing masks, except for people who looked like they were coming from the Orthodox Schul.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=2283.0,2340.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/58","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: And I'm not against people who are Orthodox. I don't have anything against them personally, but I saw how many members of the community were not wearing masks. The full families were out in the park playing, not wearing masks. And our schools were now closed because of it, businesses are being closed. And now we're in a different situation - where before, you know, this awful thing was happening in Corona, but it wasn't impacting us here directly. Something was not being observed in local communities and it was impacting us. And people, I saw people yelling at them saying, put on masks. We were in the bagel store and they yelled at someone to get out of the store. Like they were not wearing a mask when they came in. And some people, you know, you can tell that they're connected to the Orthodox community because of their clothing or their religious garb that they're wearing.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=2340.0,2385.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/59","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: So being Jewish, very complicated situation, feeling embarrassed, feeling angry, feeling like, you know, there is a phrase, you know, Shanda for the Goyem. You know, you don't want bad things about the Jewish community come out in public and and make all Jews look bad. And yet looking, it was impacting us directly. So very complicated issue, very complicated times. But now, you know, it snowed yesterday - first big snow storm in two years. My daughter wanted to go out and have snowball fight and we did, and everyone's wearing masks and I can feel comfortable going out to our park - is now open again. We can go out and lie in the snow and make snow angels. And we can make snowballs and throw them at each other. I saw many of my neighbors coming in and out of the building, everybody's wearing masks.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=2385.0,2427.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/60","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: Everyone's thoughtful about it. People don't get in the elevator with each other. And you know, we'll see what's going to happen. We have a group of, this is the last thing I'll say on this. We have a group of friends whose kids all went to school together and met. Four years ago, we started having a supper club so we can get together without the kids. So once a month, one family would choose the restaurant. We'd all go and eat. Of course, that all was canceled with the pandemic. But instead we decided to meet on Wednesday nights. And so now every Wednesday night since March, we meet. And we get together for an hour, we don't have to wear a mask, but we [unclear] eat. We're all at our homes and not everyone comes every time, but it's been a way to keep in contact with each other.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=2427.0,2466.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/61","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: And we all, almost all, except for one of us lives here in Forest Hills. So we have our perspective, but one of them has been going back to work every day, since September, commuting on the subway. Someone has medical conditions, but works in the school district. So we hear from everyone's perspective of what they see happening in Forest Hills. So I might say, I feel comfortable. Everyone's wearing masks. And they might say, I can't believe how many people I see not wearing masks. I know everyone has a different experience here. And people need different things from other people, but generally I feel really lucky to be here living in Forest Hills. I feel really proud of how the community has tackled it. I feel bad for all the businesses. I think the schools have been heroic in what they've done.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=2466.0,2506.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/62","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Barry Joseph: They've done an amazing job pivoting again and again, and again, to figure out what they can do to help support our kids. And restaurants have done a lot - figuring out what they can do to stay in business and keep us fed and the people in the supermarkets and what they've done. There was - our supermarket, you know, has those, like many do, the places to stand on the circles on the ground that go back, back and back. I went early on, in July, I think like as soon as they opened, so I could be the only one there and I bought a milk and I put it at the bottom of my thing. And then I shopped through the whole store. And as I was getting on line to pay, no one else was there. They told me that the milk was leaking and it had dropped from the moment I got it. So there was like a little dot of milk, every three inches throughout the entire store, all the way back to where I'd started. But, silly as it was, and as embarrassing as it was, I felt like, you know, no one else was in the store yet. So no one else had seen it. Like I was able to do that because people were, you know, were finding ways to go in unusual times and separate from each other and we figured out how to make this work for everyone.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=2506.0,2566.0"},{"id":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275/transcript/58142/annotation/63","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Fran Kipnis: Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. That was, that was really wonderful. It was just a pleasure to talk with you.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://queenslibrary.aviaryplatform.com/collections/943/collection_resources/108112/file/209275#t=2566.0,2574.65469"}]}]}]}