Category: Westport In Focus

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.

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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.

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My husband David and I (NAME) are both self-employed. I’m an artist; primarily a printmaker and painter. All of my art shows have been canceled – along with summer plans for a printmaking residency. The Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, where I regularly worked using the printing presses and darkroom, has also closed. After working with the kids schooling during the day, I’m now trying to maintain a home-studio practice in the late afternoons and evenings. David is an economist and has been working the last several months on launching his own company – the future of which is now quite uncertain. So, we will both be looking at how to pivot our work and hopefully find a way forward. 

As an artist, I am used to working alone and having stretches of quiet time to think and create. Having three kids at home 24/7 who are distance-learning through school, means very little time for my work. Even when I manage time in the studio, it is hard to quiet the mind and escape anxiety about what the future looks like in a post-pandemic world. I know that my artwork will change – but in what way remains unclear. I mean, all artwork is influenced by time, place, and events of the day. I will just keep showing up in the studio, doing the work, and trusting the process.  

We are spending loads of time with the kids (Xavier, 14, 8th grade; Nathaniel, 12, 6th grade; Maeve, 8, 3rd grade). In addition to their schoolwork, we’ve worked on family art projects (right now we are painting rocks to hide around town), lots of games (favorites seem to be Apples to Apples, Kids Against Humanity, Exploding Kittens, and my oldest has created a new Dungeons and Dragons campaign for us to do as a family – I am now a Sorcerer named Hazel Mylove). The kids are all trying something new, but each week this seems to change. This week our youngest is learning to code via Khan Academy, our 6th grader is learning to cook with online Gordon Ramsey videos through Masterclass, and our 8th grader is fiddling around with music on a keyboard. I’m also spending an inordinate amount of time in the backyard with my daughter’s flock of chickens. It’s easy to escape the daily stream of bad news while watching chickens be chickens.  

Westport has been incredibly quick-acting and responsive to this crisis. I am immensely grateful for the daily town communications via emails and texts. Truly admirable as well are the school district’s administrators and teachers who have been trying to provide our kids with a sense of community and stability in learning during enormous upheaval. 

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Amy Kaplan is an artist, an event planner and an elected RTM member. She, her husband and two kids have lived in Westport for 20 years.

My events are canceled or postponed, and my RTM work has been on hold as we try to adapt to a new process of holding public meetings. As an artist, it’s been a bit of a bright spot because with fewer “important” errands and meetings canceled, I have more guilt-free time in my studio. I’m finding I need that time more than ever, just to lose that ever-present anxiety for a time. 

The biggest challenge for me is to keep my high school senior connected to these last few weeks of her Westport Public School career. After a crazy few days, she had finally worked out a schedule that worked for her- sleeping till noon, but then doing all the work required during the afternoon and evening hours, taking breaks on her own time. Then, school sent an email requiring them to all sign in at 8:30 am and work from 8:30-12:15. Apparently the lack of schedule was difficult for some…but I can say with certainty that adhering to this rigid schedule in the midst of this crazy time is not going to go well in this house. 

We are just an ordinary family living thru an extraordinary time. This is a time when I was mentally preparing to be an empty nester, but as it turns out, both our children are here with us, and I’m grateful that we are together. In a way it reminds me of when they were young, with lots of noise and laundry! But it’s also a privilege to be with them as “almost adults”, when we can relate to each other as family members and friends, and share our solutions and work-arounds with each other. Hopefully we’ll share some laughs as well, even in these trying times. Mostly, we are ok. We’ll all get through this in our own way, so don’t be afraid to chart your own way behind your closed front door. But come out and wave sometimes! 

I do love that people are finding virtual and alternative ways to connect and support each other but I’m not so thrilled at the selfishness displayed by hoarding and refusal to social distance properly. I think our town leaders are doing the best they can in a difficult situation, but I wish they had been more forthcoming originally about the level of exposure here in town. To be fair, I’m not sure they got accurate info themselves right away. I just feel people might have taken quarantine more seriously if we understood that it wasn’t just people at the infamous party that were exposed. Those exposed people attended many other events that weekend and into the following week before school closed. There was a concern about people being blamed, but, honestly, I’ve not heard one person online or in real life, express that. Mostly people just wanted info to try to retrace their steps or to understand their own potential for exposure. Many of us live with or love vulnerable high-risk people, and just want to keep them safe. I sincerely hope our town officials are advocating vociferously for us behind the scenes with the state and federal agencies. 

I’m worried we are going to lose a lot of amazing people who still have so much to offer the world. I’m worried that my husband’s business will collapse, that my son will not graduate from college and still have student loans to pay. I’m worried that my daughter will not set off across the country next year, to claim her own future. I’m worried that Trump will seize this to declare elections unsafe or invalid to solidify his power and not leave office. I’m worried companies will find they only need half the staff they previously employed, and that this will not be a pause in the American economy, but the beginning of a free fall. 

I’m spending a lot of time calling, emailing, face-timing and offering to get food or necessities for neighbors. I’ve set up a virtual cocktail hour on Zoom with a friend for our artists group. 

 I’m jumping in on this oral history project to stay connected and to build something from this time that we can look back on. 

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Quincy Cuthbert has spent all of her 18 years in Westport, having been born and raised in the town. She is a college student who has come home to Westport after school closed due to Corona Virus. According to her profile at the school, Quincy is a Drexel University student majoring in Civil Engineering and Business with ambitions to design and build roller coasters, for which she has already placed in competitions at well-known theme parks. 

The most striking change in all this is that I now have to live at home and still be a full-time student. It is strange being back in town yet not being able to spend time with my friends, or go out and enjoy everything Westport has to offer.  

Everything happened so fast, and each day a new precaution is introduced but Westport is adapting at a rate I didn’t even think was possible. Even though we are all self-isolating in our houses we are really working together. There is a joke that if you grew up in Westport, you’re used to living in a bubble, this definitely brings new meaning to that.  

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