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SO MUCH MORE THAN STATISTICS
Wayne resident is one of19contributors toanew book memorializing loved ones lost to COVID
WRITTENBY PHILIP DEVENCENTIS PHOTOGRAPHY BY BY KEVIN R� WE�LER
�ean Sime knows just about everything that there is to know about Vivian Meitzler , her beloved sister . She knows about her crush on Donny Osmond , and that her favorite place to get frozen custard was Kohr ’ s , on the boardwalk in Seaside Heights . She is familiar with her quirky obsession with rubber ducks — that when she used to see one at anovelty shop , or ready to pop loose in aclaw machine at an arcade , she had to add it to her collection .
And she knows , better than anyone else , that her big sister was an incredible human being .
Meitzler , ahealth care worker from Bloomfield , died at 60 years old on April 16 , 2020 . She is among 19 loved ones from around the nation , and as far as the U . K ., celebrated in anew collection of stories , titled ��i�es���� Their �ega�ies �i�e On . All the subjects of the book succumbed to COVID-19 complications .
“ Unless someone experiences this ,” Sime says ,“ and �od forbid , I ’ d never wish this on my worst enemy , they ’ ll never truly understand the pain that this is .”
Now that her sister is gone , Sime says she wants the entire world to know about her as completely as she did . “ This book is needed , and it ’ s not just the COVID community who needs it ,” says Sime , a Wayne resident who wrote the first chapter about her sister . “ It ’ s abook for our times .”
Each chapter that follows in the 30�-page book is dedicated to adifferent loved one , and all were penned by grieving relatives . For example , a chapter that recounts the life of the late Louis Sarrel , of Rockaway Township , was written by his widow , Marla Sarrel , asecond-grade teacher for the Roxbury K-12 district .
Sarrel says it is important to tell her husband ’ s story because everyone
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