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November 27, 2020
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Aruba’s ONLY English newspaper
A r u b a ’ s O N L Y E n g l i s h n e w s p a p e r
Empty seats, delivered feasts as virus changes Thanksgiving

By REGINA GARCIA CANO, MATT SEDENSKY and HEATH-
ER HOLLINGSWORTH Associated Press
Vivian Zayas can't keep herself from scrolling through
photos of last Thanksgiving, when her mother stood at
the stove to make a big pot of rice and beans and
then took a seat at the edge of the table.
That was before anyone had heard of COVID-19 and
before it claimed the retired seamstress. Ana Martin-
ez died at 78 on April 1 while recovering at a nursing
home from a knee replacement.
The family is having their traditional meal of turkey,
yams, green beans and rice and beans — but Zayas
is removing a seat from the table at her home in Deer
Park, New York, and putting her mother's walker in its
place.
"It's a painful Thanksgiving. You don't even know, should
you celebrate?" asked Zayas. "It's a lonely time."
The family is left with "an empty chair at the table for-
ever," another daughter, Alexa Rivera, said Thursday.
Americans are marking the Thanksgiving holiday amid
an unrelenting pandemic that has claimed the lives of
more than a quarter of a million people in the United
States.
Turkey and pies will still come out ovens, football will still
be on TV, families will still give thanks and have lively Evelyn Maysonet looks at the food delivery from the Weber-Morgan Health Department Tuesday,
conversations about politics. Nov. 24, 2020, in Ogden, Utah.
Continued on next page Associated Press