Stephanie Szostak, her husband and two boys, aged 17 and 13 have lived in Westport for seven years. Stephanie is an actress who recently wrapped up the second season of her show A Million Little Things on ABC. 

“Having just wrapped a show, normally I would be probably auditioning for new stuff now but obviously all productions everywhere have stopped. As an actor these periods of unemployment and waiting are something we are familiar with so I’ve decided to treat it like that—as regular waiting. I’ve had to deal with not being in control before—waiting for callbacks for example. It’s good to treat this as sort of an “off-season” like athletes and to take the opportunity to do things to be a better performer, like creating and journaling which I am attempting to do.

Sometimes, I can’t believe the volatility of my state of mind. There are days where I’m positive or functioning and just being able to take day to day and focusing on what’s in my control. I focus on just feelin  and acting slow and just being where I am–where my two feet are. And things are ok when things are like that. It’s not that I am being oblivious but I’ve limited watching news to once a day. 

There are other days when I can’t quiet my mind and that’s saying a lot because and I’ m a meditator. I meditate 2x a day. I guess we are never really in control but this is more challenging than in regular times. Your own mind can be an obstacle—thinking about the future and the pain all around. 

Other obstacles are the news, being four people in one house, together all the time. I gain energy from moments alone, and that is challenged now. It goes without saying, though, that it’s a blessing to be together with our loved ones. We say thank god we are together, and that we like as well as love each other.  

 
My husband is a financial planner who normally goes into city two to three times a week. Like everyone he works from home all the time now and he is actually working a lot, and is in touch with a lot of clients just hearing them out about and what they need. It’s interesting because you can hear from his side of the conversation that theirs state of mind range. He’ll go from one person who is optimistic and to another going through a nightmare as well people who were dealing with illness already and then this crisis has happened. Of course, it affects him but thank goodness for technology so he can stay connected to co-workers because for him going to office was important. It’s important to feel the energy of other people around you.  

One saving grace as a family has been the puppy we adopted in February. He has been such a gift.  He’s given us moments of joy and love and togetherness around him. The other day, I was lying on the ground with the puppy with my 17 year old—a tender moment that wouldn’t have happened normally. 

We’ve also drawn a lot of resilience from our kids. Kids are incredible because they are in the moment always. My younger son has a group FaceTime talk with his friends they all check in and it’s so sweet. They talk about school, have homework groups—they help each other.  

Most of all, I’m amazed at the leadership in the town and the communication we’ve been getting from very early on—it really makes a difference. I feel like that as a community we’ve really come together and everyone is respecting what needs to happen. Most of the time, people have good intentions. I believe in the good of people but some people take a little bit longer to figure thing out, to get with the program. I don’t think that’s ill-intended so I believe we have to be careful with social media with pointing fingers, denouncing or accusing. We need to talk to people directly, email if we need to say something or see something. We need to have accountability for what we say and not hide behind a screen. 

Social distancing is weighing on us all, but it will be long, so we must remember to be gentle in the way we act with one another. We need to get ahead of the mental and emotional issues that will surely arise. Awareness is everything. If we are made aware then we can step into the world with that awareness.” 

Sheri Rabiner Gordon is a member of Westport’s Board of Finance. 

“I spend my days helping everyone get their work done, keeping the house together and endless meals! I check in on friends and family and am continuing my work on Board of Finance. It’s taken some time to adjust to virtual-only meetings. 

I own a local department store on Main Street: Savvy+Grace. It went from a retail business to e-commerce and call in order business overnight. I am still working, shipping locally & getting the store ready for when we can re-open. 

My greatest hope is that we all see how it is easy to take things for granted. That this pandemic brings out more gratitude, kindness and love in us all. It’s hard on all of us for same and different reasons My coping mechanisms for me have been God, Family & Friends (and maybe a little more wine!-ha-ha). I won’t call it a fear but I do keep thinking of the kids and how hard this is on them as well.  

As a business owner in town, I am so grateful for the community and that it realizes how important it is to ‘shop local’. It is not just a trendy saying. I have seen first-hand, during these times….Westport means it and rallies. It is beautiful and heart-warming. I know this will pass and together, we will be stronger for it.  

Jay Dirnberger and Molly Alger moved to Westport from New York City 11 years ago and quickly became integral members of town life, lending their time and efforts to numerous local nonprofits. Molly is a retired management consultant and Jay is a retired institutional investment portfolio manager. A highly decorated Vietnam War veteran, Jay was a helicopter pilot in the Army’s, First Cavalry Division and was later in the 18^th Airborne Corp at Fort Bragg. He is the recipient of the Silver star, Bronze Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, twenty-three Air Medals and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry. You can see and hear Jay’s American Memory interview with the Library of Congress here. 

“I often hear people use the analogy of wartime when it comes to the situation we’re in. Drawing the comparison idea of fighting a war in your own country doesn’t apply here—the last time that happened was the Civil War, so we have no recent collective memory of that. Except for the caregivers, the war analogy is too broad, in my opinion. However, there is a sense of community behavior to support a common goal but it doesn’t seem to me to be close to a war situation. I do think there is some analogy to the Depression that is applicable. 

I take this seriously—and have since the beginning—but, at first, I’d say Molly took it more seriously than me. In February and March there hadn’t been a lot of info about people who have been sick and gotten better. Not knowing that was demoralizing. As I’ve been learning that some people have had it and didn’t even now or those who did know and were sick but still survived—that statistical knowledge holds out hope. However, there is the worry of “silent transmitters”. 

Personally, our greatest impact is that we can’t do the volunteer work we both love. I am part of the Y’s Men and on the finance committee at the Westport Museum as well as on the board of The Playhouse. I’m also a school mentor within the international refugee community in Bridgeport. I miss that a great deal. Molly is on the board of the Friends of the Senior center and is Secretary of the Westport/Weston Community Emergency Response Team which augments emergency services during crises. Molly is practicing with the Community Band playing her alto saxophone. She hopes to participate next season. This situation is different now—volunteers can’t be put on the front lines and at risk so we are finding different ways to help. 

We walk a lot. We’ve always been walkers but we do more now. Usually we about 3 miles a day. We take a certain path and we see people in neighborhood. We cross to separate, but we still smile and greet each other.  It’s responsible behavior and it’s a shared experience that particularly reminds me of living in Manhattan those first few days after 9/11–when you ran into anyone you would say “did you lose anyone” “are you ok?”

We’ve lived in Westport for 9 years and have two young girls. I’m a stay at home mom and my husband, Brian, is the CMO at WWE. He never works from home, so this is a welcome change to physically have him in the house during the day.  Our girls attend KHS and are in K and 4th grade. Homeschooling is a large portion of our day. As they are younger, homeschooling requires a lot of hand holding and guiding. Finding time for myself or to work on things around the house are scarce.  

We are trying to stay as active as possible in the afternoon, and enjoying being together as a family when time allows a time out from work. We are enjoying long walks in a deserted downtown and exploring parts of Westport that we may otherwise not have time to enjoy. 

I feel SO fortunate to live in Westport right now. I think that our town representatives have done a phenomenal job since this crisis has begun. From being one of the first to close our schools, to encouraging us to stay home, daily communication and constant reminders and updates – I am SO impressed and proud of living in Westport. I think that our community was “ahead of the curve,” and my hope is that we come out of this faster and grow stronger together. 

One of the hardest things for our family has been not having direct contact with parents and grandparents. I am fortunate that my mother and stepfather live in Westport, and my father lives in Southport. We made the decision to only have social-distance approved contact with them several weeks ago. Not being able to embrace and see them interact directly with their granddaughters is hard. We look forward to a time when hugs and kisses return! 

We’ve lived in Westport for 17 years and I am an Occupational Therapist at a special needs school. With our school closed we are unable to provide direct hands-on therapy, but I have been providing remote support to parents of my students who are aged 3 to 20 and offering ideas for home activities. Because of my job I always feel I have incredible perspective on what is truly a hardship. The families I work with are juggling work with the demands of caring for a special-needs child, and during this time there is increased anxiety, as they have complex medical needs and are more vulnerable. I am just feeling grateful that my family is together and healthy. 

In my personal life, all four of us are home and working/doing school work. I unexpectedly have gotten to spend extra time with my oldest son, who was supposed to be studying abroad in London and with my younger son, who is a senior at Staples. In addition to working from home, I’m doing online fitness classes, going for runs and walks, making dinner with the family, reading, organizing my house, having Zoom calls with friends and family, playing games or watching shows with my two boys and husband. 

I am really trying to focus on all the kindness I am hearing about – and there is a lot of it. I feel that generally speaking everyone understands the severity of the situation and is taking the right steps to do what is right for the greater good. I’ve noticed that when I’m out walking, people are generally friendly – with waves and smiles – as there is this sense that we are all in this together. 

Ken Bernhard is a name—and a face—recognizable around town. A principal in the local law firm Cohen & Wolfe, Bernhard has also dedicated his life to public service in a variety of ways. He represented Westport in the state’s General Assembly and also served as Westport’s 3^rd Selectman. Bernhard has been a board member for a number of local charities including the Aspetuck Land Trust, Westport Museum, Visiting Nurse Service & Hospice of Fairfield County and many more too numerous to count. 

As a board member and volunteer for Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation he’s raised seven guide dogs with his wife Alice.  His humanitarian efforts include helping to found the Syria Fund which aids refugees in Jordan and his shoe collection drive Soles4Souls gives thousands of shoes to kids worldwide. Bernhard is also a supporter of Tree of Life Orphanage in Haiti, which provides shelter, food, and education for more than two hundred children. Ken Bernhard is one of Westport’s all-around good guys. 

“We are by nature actively engaged people. Most every day we strive to be busy, productive, and helpful. For the past fifty years, we have pursued our personal and working endeavors with energy and enthusiasm. So, as the government required us to stay at home, sequestered from our normal lives, we were curious to see how we would manage this new reality. For three, almost four, weeks, we have remained at home venturing out only for short walks or brief excursions to the grocery store. 

Ken is a local attorney and Alice is the marketing and development director for a hospice organization. Ken’s workload has fallen off dramatically; however, he finds opportunities to stay busy, or not, as he prefers knowing he has tomorrow to do what needs to be done. Alice has remained busy with her work within the health field, but is catching up on a lot of reading. 

Westport remains a community of wonderment always able to meet and deal with challenges as they present themselves. The administration, staff, employees, and residents are all doing their parts and doing them well. It is a source of great pride to both of us to live here. Life is about dealing with challenges. They aren’t always good ones, but we will survive, hopefully better and stronger, even if things don’t return to what they were. 

Our greatest, almost singular, hope throughout this crisis is to find ways to reduce the suffering of everyone adversely affected by it. Each day we talk about how we might do our part to help both now and in the future.  If the community, small and large, needs something we can help with, we are ready, willing and able to volunteer. We have plans of our own to do what we can.” 

I own a gym called CrossFit Westport which I closed proactively before the state mandated closings. I felt that my members and employees were at risk, and was concerned for everyone’s health and safety. Since the gym’s temporary closing, I have loaned out about 80% of my equipment to members for home use. My business has also gone virtual. We coach several group classes a day via Zoom, and check in with our members several times a week to answer questions, give personalized workouts, etc. My husband David is an investment portfolio manager, and saw the writing on the wall about two weeks before businesses closed and the lockdown was put into effect. He stopped going into the city about a month ago and has been working from home since then.  I remember sending my son back to school in California towards the end of January with much fear and trepidation. 

Both of my college-aged kids, Julia & Sam, are in on-line classes. When we aren’t working, we’re working out, cooking, reading, watching Netflix (we’ve been binge watching West Wing – if only President Bartlett was in charge now…), and I am knitting A LOT! 

I am still up at 6 am every day and fill my days with work and forward planning for my business. I am also the Producer for Staples Players, so I have spent quite a bit of time these past few weeks trying to help organize a fundraiser to help recoup the losses of our main stage show, Seussical, being cancelled. 

I would say, by and large, our community has done a good job of self-isolating, keeping the community informed, helping small businesses survive, and taking care of those who cannot get out of their homes to shop or do other errands. I feel that having lived in the City during 9/11 and experiencing the great financial crisis in 2008, has steeled us to a degree for the current crisis. Our kids have only vague memories of both, and they are doing their best to cope despite losing out on important milestones in their lives — my daughter, a musical theatre major, is missing her senior show, senior showcase and college graduation, while our son was really enjoying his first year in college, which ended all too abruptly. 

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.