As I embrace my 72nd year alive, and well, I want to reflect on how who and why I got here, these seven decades, two years, after Howard and Rena Buncher announced the birth of Gerald William. A long row to hoe, but the efforts, energy, education, insights, intuitiveness, interests of the people directly in my life, as well indirectly demonstrating how I live and how to thrive, INDEED, cause me to pause and become a bit introspective, knowing without the village, being a lone survivor would, for me, have been futile!
My parents, teaching me to understand what is unique about the world, and at the same time just how common we all can be. My sisters, demonstrating the art of three sisters, two parents, and one boy sharing one bathroom during the days of the ’50s and 60’s when just to tease a hairdo, can take up to 3 hours. And of course, the unconditional love of siblings taught us to respect one another. My grandparents who may have prepared me to be a KING, but whose own stories of survival, taught me to be humble. The droves of relatives, who during my first two decades of life all seemed to live in Pittsburgh, and always were involved in holidays, birthdays Bar Mitzvah’s weddings, and the shared sorrow and loss at funerals. My mentors and teachers, those who said, yep Gerry, you got places to go, people to see…Mrs. Park, Mrs. Langer, Mrs. Thurman, and Mrs. Musoff, Bubba, Jerry, Dickie to name a few. My best of friends, Martin, Dan, Joel, Stuart, Jando, Rachel, Betsy, and my first love, Pamela,. My children, Adam, and Dani, whose first breath took my breath away and made my life magical. And my husband, Joe, who taught me that indeed, LOVE IS LOVE.
BUT for this year, 2021, I want to thank all of the scientists, physicians, nurses, who without their tireless efforts to keep human KIND, HUMAN, perhaps I would not be able to celebrate this 72nd year of life! If NOT for those who had developed and delivered vaccines for…Chicken Pox/Diphtheria, The Flu, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Pneumococcal, Rotavirus, Rubella, Tetanus, Whooping Cough, AND CORONAVIRUS, where would all of us, even the VAXX DENIERS BE? And on this 72nd birthday, I mourn the over 4.92 million deaths from Covid, and DETEST the sheer inhumanity of those, who pretend to play GOD, acting out of lunacy, ignorance, and bigotry!
