Pope Francis strolled through St. Peter’s Square Saturday evening during the last frigid hours of 2016, exchanging New Year’s Eve greetings with the faithful. Francis made his way through the crowd to pray in front of the life-size Nativity scene following the traditional vespers, also called evening prayer, inside St. Peter’s Basilica. Along the way, he stopped to kiss children on the cheek and shake hands with well-wishers, occasionally accepting small gifts that he handed off to his body guards. People in the crowd held up their smart phones and tablets to snap pictures of the pontiff.
A restaurant owner in Union Beach, N.J., has taken dozens of doors from homes destroyed by Sandy and turned them into tables and walls in her new eatery several blocks from the Jersey shore.
Gigi Dorr lost her restaurant, a waterfront steakhouse and seafood spot called Jakeabob's by the Bay, in the storm.
As she planned to reopen near her original location, Dorr thought using the doors from some of the hundreds of homes devastated by the megastorm would be an appropriate tribute to the hard-hit community.
"It tells our story, where we've been and where we're going," Dorr said.
Retired Union Beach police chief Mike Kelly and his wife Lillian kept the door of their home of 30 years after the rest of the structure was lost to Sandy.
Gigi Dorr lost her restaurant, a waterfront steakhouse and seafood spot called Jakeabob's by the Bay, in the storm.
As she planned to reopen near her original location, Dorr thought using the doors from some of the hundreds of homes devastated by the megastorm would be an appropriate tribute to the hard-hit community.
"It tells our story, where we've been and where we're going," Dorr said.
Retired Union Beach police chief Mike Kelly and his wife Lillian kept the door of their home of 30 years after the rest of the structure was lost to Sandy.
They decided to hang it inside the new Jakeabob's.
"It serves a purpose to be here; it's a good feeling to see here," Lillian Kelly said.
Dorr hopes to someday rebuild on the waterfront. If and when she does, she says the doors of the many Sandy homes she put up in her rented space will accompany her as symbols of the spirit of a town that has vowed to come back from disaster.
"It serves a purpose to be here; it's a good feeling to see here," Lillian Kelly said.
Dorr hopes to someday rebuild on the waterfront. If and when she does, she says the doors of the many Sandy homes she put up in her rented space will accompany her as symbols of the spirit of a town that has vowed to come back from disaster.
