Author: Nicole Carpenter

Deej Webb has lived in Westport since 1967 and attended Saugatuck Elementary, Bedford Junior High and Staples High School. Self-proclaimed historic home lovers, he and his wife, Deborah, and two dogs, Zelda and Daisy, are riding out self-isolation in a rented home as they renovate their 19^th-century house on Long Lots Road.   

“I am retired from teaching and I am a docent / volunteer at The Fairfield Museum, The Westport Museum for History and Culture, The Pequot Library and The Sasquanaug Association and The Lockwood Matthews Mansion and serve on multiple Boards of non-profits. I miss my colleagues.  

I have just finished up the second edition of my book Boats Against The Current, the story of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald’s honeymoon here in Westport in the summer of 1920 and am working on the companion website to be launched in June–being useless at tech it has been a challenge learning to build a platform. My partner Robert Steven Williams and I were to premiere our documentary Gatsby in Connecticut at the Asbury Film Festival this past Saturday but that obviously didn’t happen. But we are happy to say we will be doing the Westport premiere at the Westport Library Thursday September 10, hopefully.  

Deborah works as a scientist in the Department of Immunology and Respiratory, at Boehringer Ingelheim and is considered an essential worker. They are working shifts then doing data analysis, meetings and training remotely. Deborah is reading much more on her current research projects and new technologies since they are rotating time in the lab and offices. She misses the daily interaction in the lab discussing science and troubleshooting experiments. Deborah, as a scientist, is thinking about new ways drugs currently on the market can be used for treating COVID. She is also confident that the great scientific community here in the USA and worldwide will come up with new testing, treatment and vaccinations for COVID19. 

Deborah has a horse, Mason, that she boards in Redding and is a member of the Fairfield Bridle Trails Association. She can often be found riding at Huntington State Park or Fairfield beach.  Deborah continues to ride 4 times a week and Mason is being taken care of by the owner of the barn. 

We are doing lots of FaceTime with family in UK who live in Birmingham, Nottingham and Southport and virtual happy hours with friends through Zoom. We’re supporting local businesses where our friends work by ordering meals. We also had 20 extra N95 masks that we gave to a friend whose wife is a nurse in New York City. We’re also spending a lot of time walking our dogs—so much so that they are probably going to go on strike! And we are binging on Netflix big time. 

I am an ESL teacher at The Mercy Learning Center in Bridgeport. I am working from home and have recently been promoted to ‘principal’ of our homeschool situation. The teachers here in Westport are incredible, though, and we are so grateful to even have the ability and resources to homeschool. I miss my own ESL students and my work so much. I am very worried about my students right now, but I am so grateful to my boss that I can be at home right now with my kids. 

Homeschool is hard and I realize we take for granted the way we come and go to stores and restaurants. It’s been very hard for my kids not to have their sports. Having real routines and taking our pajamas off is really challenging especially since this “school principal” is very difficult and snacks way too much!  I also really miss seeing my parents and other people. That’s been a big adjustment–not seeing people, other adults, can feel isolating and a little scary 

I think it’s important to live one day at a time and that’s very hard for me because I am worrier and a single parent, but the chance to hit reset button hard at home and work closely with my kids is truly a blessing. We are trying to be creative (and patient!) by spending lot of time outside, doing projects, cooking and baking, and playing a lot of monopoly! And eating a ridiculous amount of snacks. I’m trying to keep us on a regular schedule that gets us into schoolwork and chores in the morning and leaves the afternoon to breathe and spend time outside. 

Our community is amazing, including this awesome project which we are so excited to participate in. We are so unique as a town and so lucky to live here and have our schools. Westport is truly a creative and artistic place to live. I have really wonderful neighbors and it feels really special to be around people who are so thoughtful and protective of each other. We are SO grateful for the doctors, nurses, police, fire department, and everyone out there on the front lines and that includes the awesome teachers here in Westport making homeschool happen! 

I believe it has made our community and, I think, my family stronger but I truly hope this situation ends soon. There’s been something about having time for long walks and science projects, actual time to build a boat or drop an egg off the roof without rushing for a game or practice or school, that feels like a gift and a massive reminder to live in the present. I hope we remember the time as a family unit and how we worked together. 

Harold and Bernicestine Bailey are Chair and Secretary, respectively, of the town’s diversity action committee (TEAM Westport) which works throughout the community to spearhead engagement surrounding targeted equity initiatives. Harold is a retired IBM executive who held multiple senior executive positions in general management and marketing, while Bernicestine was a systems engineer who also worked with IBM before becoming principal of her own consulting firm nearly forty years ago. The Baileys have lived in Westport for 32 years. 

As a society we are in a cultural freefall right now. We haven’t come to terms with what’s really going on—that this is major, it’s not temporary. Even if the pandemic were solved tomorrow, we have yet to understand what got us here and to determine how society will respond.  

Day to day, we still try to extend the foundation of the work on which TEAM Westport was focused before the COVID crisis (since there is no way of knowing what the world will be like when we come out of this). When it comes to race and ethnicity, in a lot of ways, we’ll have to look at each other and get down to what’s really important. We’ve heard reports of racial bias against Asian-Americans as a result of misguided beliefs about the Corona Virus—even before mandatory social distancing. We’ve heard about such incidents both within schools and among adults. Obviously, this is not singularly a Westport phenomenon, but it’s here. 

It does make you wonder if this COVID situation will make everyone to some extent the “other” as they experience fear of contact from people with whom they were close before. If everyone gets a taste of being “othered” for a while, the question is: How do you come out of it? Will people say “I’m never doing that to anyone again” or will they end up in denial saying, “I’ve lived through it and moved on. You people should as well.”? 

In our own family, it’s been difficult in several ways. Our son, who was raised in Westport, recently moved to town with his own family. Just when we were enjoying having them close—especially our little grandson—this happened. We once experimented with going to Sherwood Island to walk around and talk with them as a physically distanced group so we could at least see each other. However, we have since discontinued even that.  It is extremely frustrating that we can’t run up to our 3-year old grandson and hug him. We can’t wrestle like we used to do. Normally he’s in our arms. We can see he’s frustrated too, although it’s for his own safety and ours as well. It’s a mutual thing.  

Our daughter and other grandson are in Florida where she is a pediatrician. We’ve been spending time trying to help her shift her practice toward online patient services and tele-medicine platforms where it makes sense. It’s a challenge because she works with a population that can be distrustful of technology in the first place.  Of course, technology helps us personally because we can FaceTime our grandson but, of course, it’s not like being there. 

The key, ultimately, whether we talk about community or within the family is that we have to focus on staying as connected as possible so we have the greatest potential for coming out better on the other side of this transition.

Along with everyone, our daily routine has disappeared. We are building new routines together and making efforts to stay connected to our work and school networks for community and mutual support. 

In our busy world, with all of the pressures we experience daily, we have found, as a family, despite the seriousness of this moment, solace and comfort in not having any reason to run off but to simply be together. Family stories of surviving the war in Europe (WWII) have always communicated a sense of what is important. We draw strength from these memories and connections. 

We appreciate how care and concern can grow in a moment like this. We appreciate the work and effort many are making behind the scenes to extend support to others. We feel it is our responsibility to understand that our actions, now, matter for future generations. To not miss this opportunity. To make certain they don’t suffer in this same way. To prepare. To become better and give that to the future.