It was one year ago, May 11, that I wrote a remembrance about Joan Caggiano who had just died on that date. I learned about Joan's passing from a Cape Gazette breaking news item which appeared on my computer screen. I immediately set to work, wrote my letter, and sent it to the Cape Gazette.
My hard copy of the recent Cape Gazette with the great article about the celebration of Joan's life and charity fundraiser arrived in the mail May 11, exactly one year to the day that we lost Joan. The celebration and fundraiser took place on the same day I received the newspaper and I was sorry that I missed hearing about it earlier.
At any rate, in the article's photo of Nick Caggiano Jr. and his cousin Kelly Munyan, there are a number of photos on the wall where they sat for the picture. I got a message from Woody Marderwald to look at the location, right about Kelly's head, in the Gazette photo. At that position on the wall is a photo of Joan and her sister. I am standing between them. I have my Rehoboth Beach Patrol uniform on, but I don't think I ever saw that photo before; it was a total surprise. Seeing it in the context of related synchronous things which were happening May 11, 2018 really knocked me over.
I realized, as I have a number of times before, that there are no real degrees of separation; we're more connected than anyone would ever guess. I was one of the first customers Nicola's ever had, and my feelings about Joan and her family run deep. From the beginning, they gave a discount to lifeguards which helped stretch the little bit of money we earned. I was grateful for it, and so were my buddies in those halcyon days of the RBP. We sent customers up to Nicola's which was giving us a break at a much-needed time (a lot of guards were in college). I used to say, facetiously, to anyone including the press, "Why are lifeguards so fast? Because they have to race the seagulls to the garbage cans for lunch!"
Ocean lifesaving is in the highest occupational risk category (including the military, firefighters, deep-sea fishermen, etc.) and requires top mental and physical fitness to maintain a record of no lives lost to drowning. That was our creed then and remains so with the RBP alumni to this day. But wages in most places have never reflected that level of professionalism, and guards are often treated like throwaway summer help. Most guards have to work several other jobs just to pay the rent at the beach; they're basically paying to do public service.
Which is all the more reason why the magnanimity of Joan Caggiano and her family remains so strong in our memory. It wasn't just a discount they gave us. They often didn't charge us at all, and treated us like gold. Joan's smile always awaited us at Nicola's. That smile is missed but, like Nick Jr. put it last year, his mother was an angel here, and now she continues to watch over us as an eternal angel.
Dr. Pete Hartsock
lieutenant alumnus, Rehoboth Beach Patrol
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