THE PEOPLE I SAW

If you ask me, this was a year for people.

For the first time in a while (let’s be real, it felt like forever) people started hanging out again. It’s almost daunting to think how much has changed in the course of the year: we rang in 2021 to an empty Times Square with many of us still isolated from large group gatherings.

Now, jump forward to the summertime: concerts came back, parties returned, flights to Europe and vacations to Colorado were no longer dreams but tangible summer plans. Communities started to come back to life (entirely thanks to the COVID-19 vaccine, relentless scientific research and health-care workers), and after a year of walking on eggshells around social gatherings, normalcy started to trickle its way back into our daily lives.

It seems fitting then, for a year so centered around the return of seeing others, that my top stories of the year focus on just that: the people who I saw.

Stephen King once said, “I think the best stories always end up being about the people rather than the event.” I believe this rings true, especially this year.  I had the great pleasure of meeting or re-meeting this handful of wonderful people, and the stories they carried left a lasting impact on me.

‘100’ YEARS OF MARRIAGE

Joanne McKeon and Ray Germain really know how to throw a post-pandemic party.

After not seeing much of their family for months, the parishioners of Immaculate Conception in Glenville threw a party for their “100th” wedding anniversary. Germain was married to his first wife, Marcia, for 55 years, while McKeon was married to her first husband, Ward, for 40 years. Both widowers, McKeon and Germain married five years ago.

More than a celebration of their love — which it was; the couple renewed their vows at a special Mass at St. Joseph’s Church in Greenfield Center — but the party that followed was more of an excuse to gather their loved ones. The event was the first time McKeon or Germain saw friends or family in almost two years because of COVID-19.

Their celebration was the quintessential 2021 reunion: loved ones coming together for the first time in ages, just happy to talk, eat and laugh together.

On top of this, McKeon and Germain are incredibly kind, faith-filled, generous people, who refused to let me leave the party without a delicious plate of food. And for that, I will always be grateful.

MARIA COLLEGE QUEEN

I first met Anne Devlin, an assistant professor and Deputy Chair of Arts and Science at Maria College in Albany, in 2019. We met in the lobby of the school’s main building during a student appreciation event for finals week: doughnuts, sweets and hot chocolate were laid out for passing students to take as a studying pick-me-up, and it didn’t take me long to see Devlin was the professor stopping students by name and asking them how their studies were going.

Between other work and the pandemic, I never got around to publishing my Q&A session with Devlin until the start of this year. Her story was long overdue, but thanks to her kind-teacher nature, she was very understanding despite me submitting my assignment late.

Devlin reminded me of the professors I had in college who truly cared about each student. Even during the pandemic, she would try to make students smile or laugh with funny videos or stickers in her power points. Her dedication to her students, her love for teaching, her mentality of smiling to spread kindness, and her love for Albany are so pure it would be impossible to talk to her and not feel her joy.

SWEET SISTER

When Sister Rosemary Cuneo, CR, emailed me with a story idea, I couldn’t have been more delighted.

A teacher at St. Colman’s Home in Watervliet, Sister Rosemary helped coordinate free breakfast meals for the school staff as part of an ongoing promotion from McDonald’s. She thought it would be a nice way to thank the staff with a hot meal, and who doesn’t want a free McMuffin?

The fact that Sister Rosemary orchestrated the day — and mentioned numerous times she didn’t want credit for it — came as no surprise to me. This was such a small story but its presence was great: it was teachers being thanked for their hard work and one teacher in particular whose big heart helped bring that thank you to life.

All of my stories with Sister Rosemary have been great experiences. We first met a few weeks after I joined The Evangelist and I’ve had the pleasure of keeping in touch with her since. One of the perks of interviewing people for a living is the rare moment when you get a friend out of the experience, and I’m grateful to call Sister Rosemary mine.

CHRISTMAS SPIRIT

The last story I wrote for 2021 was about Amsterdam composer, Maria Riccio Bryce, and her latest Christmas CD, “Remember Me, Remember You.”

We met at St. Luke’s Church in Schenectady and chatted in the choir loft above the pews of the church, a space that felt like Riccio Bryce’s domain. The music director at St. Luke’s for 25 years, Riccio Bryce recorded her Christmas album in St. Luke’s with local musicians, friends and family.

It was one of those interviews that felt like I was catching up with a friend. We talked about Christmas, time with our families, our jobs, her dreams, her time in London, marriage and life.

Then, in a terrible twist, I found out that my recorder caught none of our amazing conversation — what a way to end the year! I called her back a few days later and we talked again, and I was almost grateful for the technology muddle. It was just another chance to chat.

Riccio Bryce carries such a zest for life; you can hear it in her music and feel it when she talks about the piano or her loved ones. She spoke so candidly it was refreshing to hear someone see things how they are — warts and all — while still being filled with such hope for the future.

When writing “Remember Me, Remember You,” Riccio Bryce hoped listeners would be inspired by the message of the eternal faith of Christmas. That no matter what darkness or pain you’re going through, Christmas will come and life will go on.

It feels like the perfect message to ring in 2022. No matter what happens in the new year — whatever sorrows we battle or pain we encounter — it too shall pass, because nothing can stop this beautiful life from turning on.