Late Thanksgiving Morning in Rockaway Beach: At the YANA (You Are Never Alone) Community Center on Rockaway Beach Boulevard and Beach 113th Street

The ride from St. Jacobi to Rockaway was a quick one, and we witnessed a lot of destruction and debris driving past Riis Park, Neponsit and Belle Harbor before we arrived at the YANA (You Are Never Alone) community center, a storefront on the north side of Rockaway Beach Boulevard at Beach 113th Street, where we volunteers gathered to await assignments.

We were told to go over to St. Camillus Roman Catholic Church on Beach 100th Street, a place we know well,

and with our driver being sent to search the peninsula for diesel fuel, our group joined others walking along Rockaway Beach Boulevard.

Rite-Aid at Beach 108th was open, we noticed, as we went along that familiar boulevard, passing the apartment buildings where our Grandma Sylvia and Grandpa Nat, our Grandma Ethel and Grandpa Herb lived, our great-aunt and great-uncle Tillie and Morris lived, and where we ourselves spent months and months of lives.

until we got to St. Camillus.