Episode 52 - East Brother Light Station with Desiree Heveroh

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Hey everybody, I'm Vince and I'm Emily and you're listening to the lighthouse lowdown.

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Welcome back to the show. Today we're sitting next to each other so it's very strange. I know

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so close usually we're two feet across from each other now we're one foot next to each other.

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Yeah now yeah we're doing a fun interview today so we had to sit next to each other for a camera.

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We're next to each other and we're in your ears. Yeah. Welcome. So today uh is kind of a different

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episode. I would ask you if you haven't to go back and watch I don't know which episode on East

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Brother Light Station. 20th episode. Which was Emily's. Yeah. And today I kind of helped to put

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together only because I monitor our YouTube. We had a super nice lady named Desiree Hevereau

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reach out to us on our YouTube for that episode about East Brother Light Station and she shared

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with us that she was actually one of the keepers there and helped to care for the light station

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through COVID uh through a massive two-month power outage and through a bunch of really interesting

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stories. Yeah. So today we're going to just jump right into the interview. Um we didn't record this

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intro with her so we'll jump into that recording now. Thank you for listening.

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Hi guys. Good morning. How are you doing? I'm glad you could join us.

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I'm I'm doing all right and I'm glad I could join you too. Um this is always a little interesting

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to get started when we're recording and also doing video but the video is not recording so it's just

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us to hang out and we've got Bo Kat here with us. Yeah. I was gonna say who's that handsome baby.

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This is Bo. He likes to hang out while we do our podcast because if he's not on my lap then he's

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meowing so he's like in the back of our audio. Hi Bo. Yeah he's not wired in but um. He's got a little headset.

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First off how did you find our episode on East Brother Light Station? I mean anything that has

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to do with East Brother Light Station I seek out but then I also have Google alerts and

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you know just keeping tabs on my girl. That's awesome. So tell us about your experience there

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so starting from uh you're on the board is that correct of East Brother Light? Well I mean it goes

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back further than that. The first time I saw the light station I was crossing the Richmond-San Rafael

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Bridge well going from San Rafael back into Richmond. My daughter was in the car with me and she said

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what's that house out there on the water and I looked and I I was like I don't know and then for

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some reason it just kept you know like an earwig in my brain and so I looked up this was a while

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ago and the internet wasn't quite as fast or good as it is now. I'm like typing you know

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house on island near San Rafael bridge you know and then I stumbled across what it was and

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the bed and breakfast and you know you couldn't take kids out there so I thought well that's that

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you know as a young mom what I could afford would be trips for my daughter for special occasions

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she you know we couldn't take her so but it just kept nagging at me like year after year I couldn't

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stop thinking about it and I was looking at the website and saw that there's volunteer opportunities

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to become a wiki that's what we call the volunteers in in honor of the olden days when people had to

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trim the wicks yeah to keep the lights going so we call the volunteers wikis so I signed up as a

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wiki and I was out there every set you know every once a month second Saturday of the month helping

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doing whatever needed doing and then I saw on craigslist they were advertising for someone to

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help with marketing and I thought oh why aren't you tapping into the volunteer base you know I

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could help with that and I suggested as much then I started attending board meetings to give my

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marketing reports and one board meeting they were talking about that it was going to be time to

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nominate for new board positions and I said hey I'm already coming I'm already doing this this thing

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so I would love to be a board member and they unanimously and happily approved my board

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membership and I was a board member for a decade a volunteer for a year longer so 11 years of

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taking care of it from the back end and taking care of it like on site and then I decided

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well not decided I just realized at some point that I was actually meant to be on that island

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to exist on the island but the only way that you could do that is as an innkeeper for the bed and

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breakfast yeah as I knew as a board member so about three times three rounds I tried I tried

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I tried to find a captain I tried to make it work um piece it together I so desperate was my you know

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need to be there and just knowing and and over the course of 10 years it was very disappointing

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for it not to work out all of my friends and family would be like you know after 10 years they'd be

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like I know that's your wish I know that's your dream I know that you hope for that and I was

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like no you're not listening I'm supposed to be there I just know it and it was starting to make

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me like waver in my faith a little every time it wasn't working out but and I would think to myself

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how could I be so wrong about something I'm so sure about it the math just would not math yeah

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and and then COVID hit and we had to close the BNB down and the keepers moved on because they

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couldn't make any money and we didn't have a backup plan nobody was expecting COVID uh and

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and everyone else on the board married houses grant you know established can't leave except me and I

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thought aha here it is how the math maths it turns a number into a variable and then it makes it work

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and I got the situation in so much better a way than anyone ever has you know I didn't have to

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work I wasn't out there on Coast Guard assignment I wasn't out there on board assignment as the

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innkeeper I just got to live there you know and they said well you know don't give up your your

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place your job uh we don't know you know sweet summer chill that we all were you know oh this

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will be fixed in a month you know everything will go back to normal and um you know if we were doing

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that you know mentally during COVID and I said I don't care if it's three weeks like you know this

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is fulfilling my destiny so like I'm going and then they said oh well okay if you're okay with it

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my my company closed down it was a tourism bureau situation so travel took a really big hit you know

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yeah and the place that I was living in the in-law unit the house sold so I got a severance check

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I got a relocation check and I moved to the light station all in the same week wow so the universe

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was like hey you're not going to be able to work here's some money here's what you've always known

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you were going to have even better than you thought you were going to have it and uh that's

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how I came to be the light station keeper at East Brother light station for 14 months of the COVID

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19 pandemic wow what a rare opportunity yeah things lined up sometimes and of course in many

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ways COVID shuffled everyone's life around yeah but that is an awesome place to land yeah it wasn't

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just lucky though and it's so clearly what was supposed to happen all along and restored my

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absolute faith in the the plan that you know just there's there's a plan even though it's taking so

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long you know it's it's because it's going to come to you better than you even wanted tell us about

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moving to East Brother light you said you did all that got your check you made the relocation all in

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a week and that was all in the same week early COVID times early COVID times I hadn't left my

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apartment after the quarantine at all I was definitely one of those like super scared super

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freaked out I don't want to even breathe the air outside people um and so it was scary for me but

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I was like no no no I'm protected this is going to be okay I moved all my stuff into storage I took

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maybe like four bins four storage totes of things to the island because it's not easy

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taking anything on or off there's a small boat and then you've got a hoist you've got a big tall gang

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way that goes up to the to the island so you know the the the fewer items the better and again I

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didn't know how long it was going to be I didn't want to take too much I only took my summer clothes

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out there because I thought okay you know it'll be over soon and just enjoy it soak it up and every

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you know a couple months that kept adding and I was like my god maybe I'm gonna spend fall here

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maybe I'm gonna spend winter is am I gonna get to spend Christmas you know like every time it was

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just continued like gift yeah as far as being quarantined in islands about the best place

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that's a kind of a specific dream come true a very specific and I missed all of the stuff

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the six feet apart the everyone wearing met like I didn't have to deal with any of that

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I was probably the safest person in the world yeah those are okay things to have missed in my

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opinion yeah yeah so go ahead did they bring you like supplies and things while you were out there

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so during that 14 month period no no I was responsible okay for for myself um because

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I was responsible for myself um but since the light station typically runs as a bed and breakfast

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there is two big massive pantries um sorry about that two big massive pantries um three commercial

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freezers uh two commercial refrigerate you know plenty and I brought like all my stuff

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you know having been super quarantining myself I was really stocked up I'm a very good cook

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um so I I filled everything up and it lasted a long time I had um produce and meat being delivered

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to the harbor uh so all I would have to do is drive the boat into the harbor pick up my box

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and then go back I never really had to go into the mainland and I never really wanted to um

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because any minutes that I lost were minutes that I would never get back yeah uh we like when we

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covered the episode we talked about how there was an innkeeper position available and there was a

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lot of requirements for being an innkeeper like you had to be able to drive the boat to pick up

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the people and cook amazing meals and everything so did you ever think that maybe after you left

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the after it had all blown over that you would be able to pick up the innkeeper position and be able

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to do all those things or like were you prepared for being able to do all that the the keeper for

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running the bed and breakfast position is very demanding and does have a lot of and as as I'd

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mentioned I'd been trying to get that position yeah in that 10 years um but not having uh the partner

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uh of having with the captain's license you know all of that sort of thing it it just it couldn't

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work so and and I really just had convinced myself like I can piece this together I can find a

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captain no actually living out there you you can't just get to know someone that you're running a

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business you really have to have to have an established relationship yeah with a person so

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no it wasn't going to work for me to be the innkeeper but I didn't have to be I I got it in

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so much better of a way and I did have in the beginning there um Captain Jared Ward um who

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never gets enough credit in my opinion uh for all of his efforts and Captain Jared was out there

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as a co-light station keeper he was in the main building and he was uh teaching me how to drive

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the boat um how to fix equipment how to run the generators how to you know he taught me all of

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that while we while we were out there when he was out there he was still working he was being

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chartered for boats and captaining so we wouldn't see each other too much but when when we he had

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downtime he was teaching me uh if we had a big storm and you know sections of the fence fell

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apart you know we had to we had to patch that up and how to you know refill the propane tanks and

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and all of that and we didn't know and again it's so interesting the the faded woven tapestry of it

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all that the power was going to go out yeah and you know the boat is up on a hoist and the hoist

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only works when there's electricity uh so Captain Jared couldn't get off the island and go to work

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and he said you know what uh you got about a half of a day with me to learn whatever else you need

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to learn but I've got to get off I have work so he strapped his dog to his chest got a backpack and

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launched a kayak in the water and paddled him his way back to the mainland and that was that I was

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there alone after that and thank god he had taught me everything that he taught me because I needed

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that to survive the no power days which were two months in totality so that yeah well how did that

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happen like how did the power go out and like how did how did you navigate that whole thing

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so it was the evening of March 31st and um up to 2021 and my lights started flickering in my

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quarters and I stepped out and Captain Jared was out on the balcony of the historic building

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and everything was flickering and so we were looking at the mainland at shore to see if

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something was flickering on shore you know maybe it's just a general problem nothing was flickering

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except for with us and then everything went black and it was pretty late we were we were both going

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to go to sleep anyway he said we'll check it out in the morning I said okay so the morning is April

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Fool's Day April 1st and nothing no power for sure and so we called um the president of the board and

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let him know what was going on and uh again Jared said you know he got it got a couple hours with me

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but he was starting to get cagey like I gotta get off I'm trapped you know and it was uh

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poor his dog his poor dog Lena her face when they were kayaking she was so worried she was real low

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down onto the guy it's so cute and he said you know you you might need to think of he's like I

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he he would always say you know God Desiree like you never leave this place I know it's cool but

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you never effing leave and I said I don't want to leave I don't ever want to leave uh so then he

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said well now I know you don't want to leave but you might really have to consider leaving I don't

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know what the problem is or how long it's going to be but this is something you might need to think

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about disregarded that because there was no way I was going to leave my girl in her darkest hour

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I wouldn't deserve the magic that she was giving me if I would just abandon her like that so it

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was a rough two months I would only get to shower like once a week I couldn't have like fresh um

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food you know dairy anything like that I was piecing together meals at the end it would be

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like crackers and broccoli you know from my garden it was fine it was fine I was happy to do it I

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would do it a million times over you're a real wiki yeah it's an adventure so uh when the power

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first went out I assume you had a cell phone was your main uh communications with the land the

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inland this was very complicated um yeah I had a cell phone uh we had a we have a generator from

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the 1930s bigger than me and because he's such an old guy you can't run him regularly or he like

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he gets tired I named him gentry so I could run him for about an hour a day I would charge I would

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plug in all my laptops and my phones and get full charges but I would use one of the laptops

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specifically just as a battery pack because sometimes gentry did break and if I couldn't

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charge I couldn't call out in in a true emergency so I would never use up all my power just in case

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because gentry broke about five times um and the first time he broke um I didn't know what you know

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a piston from a pepperoni and I called the board they said you know we've got you know we've got

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our guys Steve Phillips of Penn Grove Power and Implement Museum he works on old antique machinery

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he will be able to to tell you what's going on at this point I had like 26 percent power left

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on my phone so I called him um and he's he's on an age but very smart like one of the smart is a whip

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so I talked him through how to download a duo so that we could like essentially facetime

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so that he could then see and talk me through how to take apart what he knew was going on

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yeah and it was like old technology meets new technology for the save right um and so he sent

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a part down with a board member who drove it to the harbor and then the harbor master who was having

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engine trouble of his own rode it out to me and then called Steve again so that he could show me

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how to install it and fix the the generator my gosh full team effort absolutely all hands on deck

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and I got so good uh with that generator I could smell if something was off I could hear if something

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was off and um it was my only source of power so I was really protective of it and I needed that

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power because then of course the whole world found out about the no power situation and news

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articles people were calling the gofundme account was up and I felt like it was such a critical time

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to somehow to touch every person who called because maybe that person knew uh someone else and the

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money was coming in and I I was using the power up every day just trying to just reach people's

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hearts about saving it because at that point we understood it was a failed submarine cable okay um

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and even though it was the responsibility of the coast guard uh they they didn't really want the

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million dollar price tag right um the cable itself was 150 000 laying it was like another 800 000

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and and they said you know our real obligation is to keep the light flashing so we'll stick a solar

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panel up there and be done yeah and I said but that leaves us with no power to run the bnb

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it was kind of a well then that's your that's your problem isn't it I mean you guys can come up with

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the the money so yeah and I was actually watching the light too it it was like living back in time

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I can't tell you it was like a time machine so it is an active aid to navigation the light has to

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flash when I would run the generator it would power the backup batteries which had about 72

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hours on them but when the generator would break I couldn't recharge those batteries and so the

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coast guard said I had to keep an eye and if the light wasn't flashing then they would have to

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issue a state of emergency to get like you know a backup um generator funded by the coast guard out

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there so I was literally keeping the light during that time as well so it was um such a unique

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such a unique time traveling experience yeah so cool and so horribly stressful there was a lot

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of steps uh to having no power but I wasn't stressful I was excited to rise up to whatever

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challenge the day brought and it would be habitual things but then the occasional oh crap

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gentry broke or you know the day tank is leaking and half of my diesel fuel is all over the floor

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you know like what do I do you know yeah so it sounds like you were busy to say the least yeah

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but what was what was the day to day like before and then during the power failure did it was there

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a significant change it sounds like all these activities you were doing absolutely so before

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you know if it was just a regular you know non-rainy non-windy day I could just do whatever

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came if it was particularly windy I would do inside things if it was particularly nice I would

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do outside things I kind of started to befriend a raven who I named Edgar Allen so great focus

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was spent every morning on trying to get him closer yeah you know I'd spend a good hour trying to get

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Edgar closer and I could get him about three feet away from me and then Edgar took a wife

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oh Brandy Alexander and she would never get near me but I would feed them every day and then I would

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have to keep the seagulls away from the Raven's peanuts because he was priority I would throw them

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some stuff too there was a week long wonderful period of life where you know everything was

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hatching and there were so many nests because there weren't guests walking around all the time

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there were nests everywhere I mean hanging safety goggles had little nests built into the eye socket

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everywhere and there was a duck that had a nest right outside of my entrance that I was watching

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anyway one of her ducklings got stuck in the brush and she couldn't get it out so she left the duckling

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left the duckling and then I was like I'm her mother now you know I can do this for her so

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raising a little duckling um feeding Edgar and Brandy uh is looking for rainbows if it was a rainy

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tending to my garden uh duolingo all the things that you say if you had infinite time oh grow a

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garden oh I'll learn a language oh you know like I was doing all of that stuff um when the power

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went out the the tasks went up quite a bit um I was having to when the generator would be on I'd

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have the ice machine on so I had to get buckets of ice to keep the one freezer you know I had some

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blocks of stock acting as like blocks of ice and the one freezer for some kind of protein so I would

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have to swap out the ice um twice a day I had to gather kindling every evening because it was

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cold like you can see your breath cold still at the light station so every morning I needed to

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start a fire um and a funny anecdote because I'd been feeding Edgar and Brandy for months and months

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and they say ravens and crows will bring you presents right yeah and I nothing and not that

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I was you know I was still gonna feed them whatever but I was like okay maybe these ones just

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you know don't um but when the power was out and they had seen me gathering kindling and every night

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they started leaving me bundles of twigs that's awesome from trees that weren't at the light

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station so they were bringing them over for me because that's what they saw me like needing

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and I just how do you not melt yeah ravens are supposed to be incredibly intelligent I wonder if

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they're helping you out they knew what they were doing they absolutely were helping me out

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indisputably that's incredible so was power restored via a new submarine cable or solar

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system or what what happened there so we raised um a fair amount of money in a short amount of

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time we were able to pay a company to splice the cable which is not a long-term or permanent fix

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but you can get some years out of a splice and um the regulations were kind of starting to lift

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and it was time to start talking about uh reopening the bnb with a little bit more regulation like

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the people would have to prove that they were vaccinated and you know everything was getting

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double extra clean and um the splice would hold long enough that we could reopen the bnb

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try to recoup some of our financial losses and try to put aside some more money towards

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the permanent fix of the submarine cable so yeah it's right now it's living on spliced power

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that's incredible so i haven't had any recent touches with east brother light so it sounds

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like the airbnb is back up to speed normally receiving guests nice yeah it reopened september

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of 2021 okay so was that effectively uh ended like your care of the lighthouse or were you able to

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stay there a little longer i stayed until august of 2021 um late august and we had

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and we had contacted um some former keepers let me i cannot emphasize this enough and people

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really don't understand how hard these keepers work it is more than 24 7 they don't have days

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off it's difficult it is hard hard work and keepers turn over approximately every two years

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sometimes a little less sometimes a little bit more i've been through so many keeper interview

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processes and we weren't getting i don't want to say good enough but i'm gonna say good enough

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we weren't getting good enough applicants and we reached out to some former keepers who since

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leaving the light station were living on their sailboat having adventures around the world

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and they had been there for three years when they were keepers and they were willing to come back and

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that's really the only way you could really restart it up um and add the components of all the covet

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precautions to someone who has already done it that was the only way it was going to work yeah

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so brian and stephanie came back for about two years and now there's um there's drey and charity

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that are out there and they've been out there for about a year and the next set of keepers will

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and on and on it goes like it has since 1980 that's so cool so much responsibility and customer

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service all down to two people you have to have elite elite interviews yeah what is that process

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like what do you see between the candidates is that something you can discuss sure uh we'll get

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applications we'll weed down the ones that we think have a strong chance we interview them sometimes

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we do second rounds of interviews um we give them scenarios we ask them questions we give them the

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reality of the situation you know do you think you can handle you know not having a life outside of

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this for yeah you know two years most people's family milestones happen on weekends birthdays

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celebrations graduations babies being born weddings you're not going any of that are you going to be

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okay with that you know what how would you handle a guest who x y and z because we've had that

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and and we have had situations where we'll choose a set of keepers and then when the magnitude of it

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really hits them they back out oh no we've had to go with like our third and fourth option sometimes

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um because that's how it works out we've had people that before the two years is up they're like you

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know what i can't we we've got to go we don't make anybody stay and we just start the process

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again one year the hunt went viral so where we would get maybe six real applicants this time we

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had thousands of applicants and and we had to you know weed through each one of them 50 55 were viable

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candidates well it felt like we were interviewing all the time that that round i mean we were three

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four times a week having to convene as a board interviewing all of these applicants taking it

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seriously so viral has its its uh pluses and minuses yes my gosh that sounds like a lot of dedication

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so are you still are you still on the board or are you still helping with that process or are you

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kind of moved on from east brother i in my heart i will never move on from east brother that is the

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great love of my life and i am not by my decision or my desire at all i am no longer a board member

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um i don't want to get into that part of it um because you know people can ruin good things

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other people and egos but i just really i don't want to take away from how wonderful and how magical

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and i don't want anyone to be like oh well that's not right i won't go there go there yeah don't

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don't shoot yourself in the don't miss out go there everyone should go there it is going to be

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one of the top three best experiences of your life i don't hold bad feelings i still love the

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light station i still want people there yeah well there's some other things i saw it sounds like

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your life is full of adventure the hotel mac the ss red oak are just some that popped up in my quick

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search of you and i'm sure it's an incomplete list also volunteer burning man richmond museum

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association but i'm sure the incomplete list of previously interviewed by united states lighthouse

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society richmond standard richmond pulse east brother beer company which i enjoyed in world of

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nuance that recent youtube video that was huge um do you have any ideas about or maybe you already

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have recording some of your adventures whether it be audio recordings or writing a book or something

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like that or something i do have plans for a book i thought it was just going to be about the light

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station and then things just kept happening for me um the light station just filled me up with

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the light station just filled me up with this magical light and ever since then i'm just

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it's like a magnet for these amazing adventures and i'm still in it so there's not really time to

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to write it because i'm it's still writing itself essentially right and it's kind of nice to have

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some time because your perspective on things changes with time and i think to have a well-rounded

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perspective before i put pen to paper will be helpful and um i already have the title for the

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light station book i'll be our brother's keeper nice and the aisle is i s l e love it right

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sorry you're ahead of it yeah reading about all this and watching your interviews and everything

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after august of 2021 where did life take you after that so i think it was around july that i got a

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phone call from the richmond museum association i had been a board member there for two terms

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so they were they knew me and everyone knew me when the power went out and i think i really

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proved my metal to people who would look at me and say there's no there's no way this girl's gonna

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you know do these things or deal with this stuff i i think i really proved myself um you know tough

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and pioneering and so uh the shipkeeper position there's two shipkeepers that can trade off and

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came up and they said hey you know would you be interested and and i thought again with the plant

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look at how it all just lines up and i said sure and i said when does it start and they said late

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august which is when i was moving off the light station yeah perfect so i walked down the gangway

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of the light station and i walked up the gangway to the ship on the same day to take my stuff

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and i was so nervous about you get used to you get used to things i got used to

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the sound of the water the sound of the seagulls um not worrying about a calendar or a clock

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i was so nervous about what my next step was going to be and and fully immersing back into

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the mainland and you know all the people and so it was nice to still kind of be on the outskirts

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to still hear the seagulls to still hear the water um to be on a ship that i had been visiting

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for years of my life i didn't even need to be shown around i knew my way around already

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um and it was so cool it was so cool and then two months after that i got a phone call about

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being the innkeeper at the hotel mac from a childhood friend who was the current innkeeper

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and moving on and i said well sure i can i can do both and then two months after that the richmond

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museum association said hey the executive director of the museum is leaving we're thanking you and i

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thought i don't know if i can tell all of that but i'll try and that was a hard year 2022 was

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22 was a year very little sleep and no time off whatsoever but i i did it you know i did all three

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and i just continue to make myself proud yeah that's amazing yeah it sounds like you've got

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a great pulse on richmond you're uh you're very well connected you know more than most and you're

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right in there something i like to bring up we talk about lighthouses um so i don't know the

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san francisco bay area too well but east brother light is most near richmond is that right that's

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correct and it's in a really rough channel which is why there needs to be in a lighthouse in the

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first place um that's where i learned how to drive a boat oh my gosh right yeah there was a lot of

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yelling and crying it's like trying to drive a manual and rush hour traffic is your first time

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it's it's even harder well driving the boat on the open waters fine it's trying to land the fine

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details of landing because you know you're wanting to get in in their small detailing nuances and the

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water is just like pushing you wherever it wants to push you yeah and we've had a lot of adventures

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um is there anything else you want to talk about today or questions for us

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so um if i could share some historic anecdotes that i think are particularly um interesting and

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or parallel uh to experiences um you guys obviously are familiar with the stenmark era

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so the exit that you take to get to the light station was renamed stenmark drive in honor of

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the stenmarks um tom butt who is president of the east brother light station non-profit he was also

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the mayor of richmond for eight years he had it changed to honor the stenmarks and we've had

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stenmark descendants come out to the light station to be on the grounds of their you know their

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ancestors which has been particularly special um so the stenmarks went there with two children and

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they had two children while they were out there um captain stenmark having to row to san quentin to

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fetch a doctor both times and you know there's no there's no real mention because at that time of

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course you don't complain right but who knows what the conditions of the water were what the

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weather was whether it was nighttime or i think about these things all the time just here i am

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getting my you know kindling thinking oh i'm true grit but captain stenmark was true grit you know

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um and they were out there for 22 years which is amazing um initially they there was a teacher

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that was sent um by the you know county to come teach the children so she would stay in the

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the the little school house uh quarters which are now the innkeeper the innkeeper's quarters

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which is where i where i was living um and then when the train came um then they changed it uh so

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that the the stenmarks would have to row the kids to shore and the kids would ride the train in

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into town to go to school but you don't think about things like that um when uh one of their

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daughters was older a gentleman who worked for standard oil which is now chevron uh would row

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out to court her and at the beginning he wasn't very good but he became very fluent

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and rowing you know to come to come and court her and of course they were married and um so

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the stenmark days are fascinating to me and i had uh you know there's different types of dreams

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sometimes there's dreams that are not dreams so i had a lot of those when i lived out there i mean

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i was just constantly getting messages and prophetic dreams um one of them in particular

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lady stenmark um and an accompanist were coming up from the north shore of the island which is

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not where the dock is now but it is where it was during that time so uh lady stenmark came up

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she was all in victorian garb you know and she's pointing at all of the things that were different

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and then she sees me and she points at me and then she points down and i look down and suddenly

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i'm standing in the garden and there's this swiss chard growing all around me so it was clear that

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lady stenmark wanted me growing chard in my garden and i put six plants out there so and they did

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really well um so that's my stenmark that's my little like stenmark story and and then after the

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stenmarks were the kofads and they had two grandchildren and their daughter who lived in

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berkeley little walter and emma fanning um their their dad was away at world war one and the

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spanish influenza was ravishing the world much like we were dealing with during covid so um

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walter and emma's grandparents the kofads said you guys are moving out here to the light station

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to escape the flu and so i was living at the light station escaping the flu and walter as a very old

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man in the 70s when the coast guard wanted to demolish the the structures and the non-profit

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formed and the historic designation was given walter was there as president of the board he was

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on that light station uh day in and day out working towards the restoration with his own hands

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he built himself a little a little room that he would sleep in because you know he was there all

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the time and we subsequently turned that room into walter's quarters yeah as a place where the guests

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can stay um where wal- good old wal used to stay i never met him myself but um i think that anyone

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who i get all emotional anyone who loved the light station like that like me i have so much respect

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for so my little duckling who i found i named her dakota fanning after walter

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so after walter fanning and i moved every historic artifact that had to do with walter

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and his um and the kofads into walter's quarters area so not only do you get to see the kofads

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not only do you get to stay in his quarters you get to see all of the things that um are from his

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lineage from his history there at the light station um so that's my walter panning story um and then

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i mentioned that the day tank was leaking diesel fuel one time because i came in to turn the

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generator off and everything was wet i lived completely feral out there i never wore shoes and

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you know nothing fancy so i walk into this wetness and i like freak out you know apparently diesel is

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a little different than gas it's not as flammable i didn't know that though at the time and i was

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thinking oh my god you know i i threw my cell phone out of the building you know in case it rang

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or something you know you know spark you know and i'm picturing a fire much like the fire that happened

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um in the boathouse uh poor willard who who burned his hands all up trying to fan that fire out the

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whole gangway burned up i don't even know how they they got out there to them it was just

382
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uh but i i poured flour and baking soda and any powders that i had to like soak it up

383
00:45:33,040 --> 00:45:40,640
it was just the scariest day and i thought oh god and now i understand like the panic that he must

384
00:45:40,640 --> 00:45:45,520
have gone through like you know the uh the responsibility that was on his shoulders like

385
00:45:45,520 --> 00:45:53,360
that and it it was like walking in the feet of history out there there were a lot of parallels

386
00:45:53,360 --> 00:46:03,760
and i'm infinitely grateful i i could never explain how grateful i am to have had to be

387
00:46:03,760 --> 00:46:10,640
gathering that kindle kindling to had to be smelling for a week before i could shower to

388
00:46:10,640 --> 00:46:18,000
had to be not eating correctly for those two i'm so grateful for all of that yeah and especially

389
00:46:18,000 --> 00:46:22,560
like at that time no one else was willing to do it in the lighthouse needed somebody like

390
00:46:22,560 --> 00:46:28,720
you and that's why the time had gone on so long without being able to fulfill your dream is that

391
00:46:28,720 --> 00:46:33,280
you're you're being saved for a specific moment where nobody else would be able to fill that hole

392
00:46:33,280 --> 00:46:39,600
so it's amazing yeah and and i thought about that too i thought this is why it has to be me

393
00:46:40,160 --> 00:46:49,280
who else was gonna do that who else destiny man yeah it's a really it's a really neat thing

394
00:46:49,280 --> 00:46:56,640
there's all kinds of crazy spiritual unexplainable stories like your prophetic dreams and those kind

395
00:46:56,640 --> 00:47:01,360
of um like the destiny sort of things a lot of those things happen around lighthouses it just

396
00:47:01,360 --> 00:47:07,280
seems like it's kind of like a path to another world that people experience all kinds of crazy

397
00:47:07,280 --> 00:47:16,160
stuff it it changes a person though too or it did me i i got to sit down and watch the most beautiful

398
00:47:16,160 --> 00:47:22,880
sunsets every night you know i i wasn't interested in tv the birds would all come in from wherever

399
00:47:22,880 --> 00:47:30,320
all the directions encircle west brother and land and the sunsets behind it were just and now i i

400
00:47:30,320 --> 00:47:36,560
look at sunsets as such beautiful overwhelming things um on my birthday it was raining and

401
00:47:36,560 --> 00:47:44,320
usually that would suck right out here but it meant that i had rainbows all day all throughout the sky

402
00:47:44,320 --> 00:47:53,600
all throughout the sky on my birthday a gift from my light station and it it changed me yeah

403
00:47:54,640 --> 00:48:01,040
my friend gary at the harbor he always says oh dez you saved her she saved me that's incredible

404
00:48:01,040 --> 00:48:06,080
a lot of people say you know they win the lottery one of their plans is to to find an island and

405
00:48:06,080 --> 00:48:11,600
throw away their cell phone i think it's a different context but uh we're all looking

406
00:48:11,600 --> 00:48:16,640
for something like that some real experience especially with a lighthouse and all that history

407
00:48:16,640 --> 00:48:23,040
to connect with i think uh you know the the sitting in the sand with a with a drinking hand

408
00:48:23,040 --> 00:48:28,080
is a different idea but it's kind of the same hope that people have some adventures some history

409
00:48:28,080 --> 00:48:34,320
some stories and something real to connect with absolutely and not all of us are so fortunate and

410
00:48:34,320 --> 00:48:43,360
and gratitude is an amazing healer yeah so so your experience with i don't want to speak for

411
00:48:43,360 --> 00:48:49,120
you but it's meant to be a question your experience with each brother light and your i'll say spiritual

412
00:48:49,120 --> 00:48:54,800
connection to it those dreams that you have these feelings that you have how has that gone into your

413
00:48:54,800 --> 00:49:01,040
other work that you've done because from meeting you online and also watching other recordings and

414
00:49:01,040 --> 00:49:06,080
videos of you it seems like you carry that passion around is that just all over the place you see

415
00:49:06,080 --> 00:49:14,560
through a different scope now completely different scope i um i i still believed in a lot of um you

416
00:49:14,560 --> 00:49:21,120
know universe and juju and all of that before going out there but it's so much more intense now like

417
00:49:21,120 --> 00:49:30,000
i never questioned the signs and the signals now they're they are out there the the day before the

418
00:49:30,000 --> 00:49:36,960
keepers were coming back on to like get things restarted my last official day alone at the

419
00:49:36,960 --> 00:49:43,760
lighthouse i walked out to the garden in the morning to you know feed feed the birds and i saw this

420
00:49:45,040 --> 00:49:52,400
it was on one of my squash leaves and i saw this thing happening with some cocoon uh

421
00:49:53,920 --> 00:49:59,200
and i thought let me go run and get my phone but then i thought no no no this is just for me yeah

422
00:49:59,200 --> 00:50:04,640
so i sat there for about an hour and i watched this this thing that i mean this is going to

423
00:50:04,640 --> 00:50:10,480
sound gross but this is what it was this thing came out of it that was the color of pus like

424
00:50:10,480 --> 00:50:19,920
not quite yellow not quite green kind of creamish and it like opened up its wings and dried out and

425
00:50:19,920 --> 00:50:27,280
slowly started turning red and getting its spot i watched a ladybug be born oh my gosh and and

426
00:50:27,280 --> 00:50:34,560
fly away and it was such a a reassuring message to me because of course i knew that the you know

427
00:50:35,360 --> 00:50:39,200
time was going to come this isn't forever i'm going to have to leave of course i'm going to

428
00:50:39,200 --> 00:50:46,480
be sad about it of course right but it was like a message from the from the island like

429
00:50:48,160 --> 00:50:54,640
you are also being born a ladybugs are symbols of hope as well isn't that right or is it luck maybe

430
00:50:54,640 --> 00:51:02,080
i don't know i'm losing it i think there's some either way either way what a wonderful reassuring

431
00:51:02,720 --> 00:51:09,120
you're okay you're safe we still got you we always talk about or at least i do i bring it up every

432
00:51:09,120 --> 00:51:15,920
community that we talk with someone about their lighthouse their local lighthouse of course we're

433
00:51:15,920 --> 00:51:19,600
a little bit biased because we're already in the lighthouse circle right that's how we start the

434
00:51:19,600 --> 00:51:27,280
conversation but it seems to be culturally significant and i think that is not so much

435
00:51:27,280 --> 00:51:33,120
in the physical presence of lighthouses but people's experiences you know they have memories they

436
00:51:33,120 --> 00:51:38,720
travel with family they go out there sometimes they see ghosts you know there's all sorts of stories

437
00:51:39,760 --> 00:51:45,920
and even to modern day with people living around lighthouses and i think it's we've talked with

438
00:51:45,920 --> 00:51:52,240
folks and this always comes up maybe i always bring it up but it just seems so significant to

439
00:51:52,240 --> 00:51:59,040
me it's it's really been a pleasure to hear some of your experiences out there yeah today because

440
00:51:59,040 --> 00:52:03,760
we everyone loves history we love to read and hear about things that have happened but when you're

441
00:52:03,760 --> 00:52:10,320
talking about living history about modern day events and feelings that may or may not be captured

442
00:52:10,320 --> 00:52:17,840
you know by a cell phone like you said or in a book or on an interview there's so much of life

443
00:52:17,840 --> 00:52:23,280
that is not recorded but it's really special it's it's something to appreciate it it's really cool

444
00:52:24,560 --> 00:52:32,480
absolutely and i i have a respect for lighthouses they keep ships from sinking and um it's a

445
00:52:32,480 --> 00:52:41,520
it's a i i i i respect lighthouses i do um but people always say oh here look at this lighthouse

446
00:52:41,520 --> 00:52:46,800
or let me get you this lighthouse statue oh you love lighthouses don't you i love a lighthouse

447
00:52:46,800 --> 00:52:58,880
yeah and by proxy all of her cousins you know but i love a lighthouse yeah she's mine we have

448
00:52:58,880 --> 00:53:06,320
something that no one else has had and that no one else could ever take from me yeah incredible

449
00:53:06,320 --> 00:53:11,040
desiree you have anything else you want to talk about today no um thank you guys for keeping the

450
00:53:11,040 --> 00:53:20,240
light on uh and spreading the word about um our beautiful lighthouses that are just few and

451
00:53:20,240 --> 00:53:26,000
far between more and more these days yeah and we're so grateful that you could talk to us and

452
00:53:26,000 --> 00:53:30,800
share all of your genuine experiences with the lighthouse because you know in our episodes we

453
00:53:30,800 --> 00:53:38,160
cover the history and things that we find online but the real feelings so like the genuine human

454
00:53:38,160 --> 00:53:43,280
experiences there can't really be captured in just short summaries of things that happen in

455
00:53:43,280 --> 00:53:49,200
history so we love to be able to expand especially on specific lighthouses on those really really real

456
00:53:49,200 --> 00:53:56,400
things it's really real and it's really hard i know that i'm over here like rainbows and magic

457
00:53:56,400 --> 00:54:05,840
but it was hard living it was really hard living and so i respect our forefathers

458
00:54:06,880 --> 00:54:12,160
in a way that i didn't before yeah definitely i don't know how to end it any better than that

459
00:54:12,160 --> 00:54:18,880
it's such a pleasure okay sounds good well keep in touch uh let you know when this airs and uh

460
00:54:18,880 --> 00:54:23,760
see what we can help you with or talk to you about in the future yeah definitely great thanks so much

461
00:54:23,760 --> 00:54:28,320
and i'll send you tons of stuff and you can pick what you want okay thank you so much thank you

462
00:54:28,320 --> 00:54:37,040
all right bye guys bye well that was a fun interview what are we like 80 years old yeah um

463
00:54:38,400 --> 00:54:39,600
i'll just say uh

464
00:54:42,320 --> 00:54:44,080
you wouldn't even let me do it you just do it

465
00:54:44,080 --> 00:54:51,760
so check us out on our website the lighthouse lowdown.com you can send us an email the lighthouse

466
00:54:51,760 --> 00:54:57,440
lowdown at gmail.com and you can check out our instagram we have a youtube uh you can listen

467
00:54:57,440 --> 00:55:04,560
our podcast anywhere um all of that you can find on our website thank you vince for planning this

468
00:55:04,560 --> 00:55:18,800
interview and executing it oh so Vince is mad at me you say bye see you next time on the lighthouse

469
00:55:18,800 --> 00:55:35,040
lowdown bottom all the way no

470
00:55:48,800 --> 00:55:49,040
you