Car parade in Bayport shows support for ER nurse, co-workers
An emergency room nurse from Bayport said she was hit by “an unbelievable, overwhelming feeling of love” Sunday when her sisters threw a drive-by parade to thank her and her co-workers for battling coronavirus.
Abigail Desmond, who works at Long Island Community Hospital in East Patchogue, said the parade brought tears to her eyes after two months of seeing “more devastating things than people should see in their lifetimes.”
“It means the world to us,” Desmond, 26, said. “We don’t feel like heroes. We’re doing our jobs, but we’re really grateful for the support of the community.”
At least two dozen cars streamed past Desmond’s home Sunday, with family and friends inside the cars shouting “thank you” as Desmond and her five ER co-workers watched from the lawn. Some loved ones stopped to give gifts, including Dunkin’ Donuts gift cards.
One of Desmond’s older sisters, Maggie Desmond, roller-bladed around in a shirt that said “Fix your ponytail and handle it” while waving a white flag saying thank you. And Desmond's daughter, Hailey Rose, 8, made a sign for the house saying, "Thank you to the healthcare workers."
Maggie Desmond and another sister, Beth Lynch, said they organized the parade after hearing what their sister and her co-workers went through during the peak of COVID-19 hospitalizations and “how they put so much of themselves into it.”
“They might not think they’re heroes but we think they are,” said Maggie Desmond, 32, an architect who lives in Oceanside. “They have pushed themselves beyond anything we can comprehend.”
Abigail said she believes her sisters felt they needed to cheer her up. She had reached out to them for support as she felt “suffocated” by “fear, anxiety and grief from all the people we lost” for the last two months. It didn’t help that Desmond couldn’t see their new babies because of social distancing.
“My sisters saw that change in me,” she said. “They needed to see me smile.”
The two sisters initially planned the parade as a surprise just for Abigail, but once their father accidentally spilled the beans, Abigail said she asked that the parade also celebrate her co-workers, whom she called her best friends.
She invited fellow ER nurses Courtney McElhone, Stephanie Costa, Jimena Vera, Michelle Farid and Tatianna Young over for breakfast before the parade. They spent time together afterward, discussing how they could not have gotten through this crisis without each other to lean on.
“We’re so close and this has brought us even closer,” Desmond said.
Much of that crew spoke to Newsday last month about the emotional, physical and mental toll of working amid the pandemic.
Young said the parade came after “a hard couple of months for us.”
“We’ve seen some terrible things so we’re just grateful,” Young, 27, of East Moriches said. “Our hearts are full.”
Rachelle Blidner covers Suffolk County government, politics and breaking news.
