âHe Was Smiling and Went Straight to the Boothâ
A sign of hard work, stranded on the Upper West Side and more reader tales of New York City in this weekâs Metropolitan Diary.
June 27, 2021, 3:00 a.m. ET
Image
Dear Diary:
I was at the 68th Street-Hunter College station, standing in a neat row of commuters dressed in suits and punching dumbly at the keys of MetroCard machines that all seemed to be down.
A construction worker came bounding down the stairs. He was smiling and went straight to the booth.
I stepped over to stand behind him. He was covered head to toe in concrete dust. A line began to form behind me.
âItâll Get Betterâ: Chaplains Play Essential Role for Transit Workers
Metropolitan Transportation Authority chaplains have long provided counseling to workers, a role that is even more important during the pandemic.
Barbara Morton, left, chaplain for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and Frank Lamorte, an agency painter, who was counseled by Ms. Morton after he contracted the coronavirus. Credit.James Estrin/The New York Times
By Diana Kruzman
May 11, 2021
A few days after Frank Lamorte tested positive for the coronavirus, he got an unexpected phone call.
Mr. Lamorte, a painter for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, had a persistent cough and a high fever. He worried about infecting his wife, his stepdaughter and his five-month-old grandson, who live with him in Oak Ridge, N.J., about 40 miles west of Manhattan.