Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1292368
NORTHSHOREMAG.COM 34 OCTOBER 2020 FAC E S + P L AC E S A flight of beer at Granite Coast. This past summer Leslie Gould, executive director of the Greater Beverly Chamber of Commerce, interviewed North Shore Music Theatre's Karen Nascembeni via ZOOM about her ordeal with COVID-19. Karen brings her experience to Northshore magazine in her own words. St. Patrick's Day…a holiday my husband, Steven Richard, and I normally celebrated at his family's dining table, eating corned beef and cabbage and wearing green plastic hats, or drinking a Guinness in an Irish pub, a tradition we often topped off by joining friends at Chianti Jazz Club and listening to Los Sugar Kings perform Latin music. March 17, 2020, was different. It was the day I said my last goodbye to my husband. A week earlier, both of us were rapidly spiraling downward to the sickest we had each ever been. High temperatures, body aches, and exhaustion came at us in a physical storm like we had never before experienced. Steven and I were in a state of confusion from what I now understand was oxygen deprivation. We had heard of the coronavirus, but this was not yet something we worried over—or even thought a great deal about. After all, it was the very beginning of America awakening, practically and emotionally, to this new disease. The country was just beginning to start to shut down. Still, Steven and I were each diagnosed with a sinus infection and prescribed antibiotics. On the morning of March 17, it became clear that this was no sinus infection. Steven was particularly unwell. I told him I was going to call an ambulance. He asked that I drive him to the hospital. My doctor called ahead for clearance, and then, in a delirious state, I drove us to Winchester Hospital. There we were instructed to wait in the parking lot next to the ambulance bay so we could be taken, one at a time, for critical assessment into a special area of the emergency room. Steven, by now gravely ill, was helped out of the car by a North Shore Music Theatre's Karen Nascembeni shares her experience with COV ID-19. FIGHT FOR LIFE North Shore Music Theatre's Karen Nascembeni shares her story after being stricken with COVID-19 amd losing her husband to the virus. PHOTOGRAPHS BY JARED CHARNEY medical professional. He turned around, blew me a kiss, and said, "I love you." I smiled, blew him a kiss, touched my heart and said, "I love you, too." That was the last time I saw him. A week later he was dead, one of the first Massachusetts residents to succumb to this strange new viral enemy. I did not know that Steven died. I did not know my father-in-law, Earl, and my friend, Don Kelley, died five days later. I did not know these things because I was fighting for my own life. I did not know that my sister, Sandra McArthur, was having to make life-or-death medical decisions on mine and my husband's behalf. I did not know that my friends and family were not only enduring the loss of our beloved Steven and Earl, but also hanging onto Sandi's every word in her nightly eloquently written Facebook post updates. I did not know that people were praying for me around the world, that the North Shore Music Theatre costume department was sewing masks, or that t-shirts, wine glasses, and coffee mugs were being designed by my friend, Nate Bertone, with my portrait on them and two of my favorite sayings, "Hello, Darling" and "Come On Party People," and that these were being sold to raise money for the Steven Richard Memorial Scholarship Fund, which Nate also created, along with a "Postcards for Karen" campaign. I did not know that homes and businesses were placing candles in their windows in honor of