It was tough for everyone who went through it. Italians were singing songs across their balconies. The French were flooding their empty streets with lights. And while Americans were locked down, a certain hero was running to New York, a story that Jodi Maiers breathed to life in 13 Weeks.
This was not your normal nurse. He was a floating nurse who accepted assignments and used to enjoy doing it. But when 2020 hit, a new world hit. While I was in my house, minding my own business, this nurse ran toward the worst of it to offer his services.
Scott Maiers was a hero in every sense of the word. When you think of a hero, you might think of a police officer who saves lives. You might think of a person in the fire department who will climb to the top of a burning building and bring children back alive. You might think of a soldier who comes back from the war after losing good friends.
Scott not only saved lives while he was at Elmhurst Hospital in New York, but also volunteered for it and ran right toward the worst of the worst. He didn’t have to go. No one asked him. He volunteered!
This man wanted to run right toward the chaos with the will to solve problems, not create them. He had the expertise. He had the know-how. But he also had the passion to fight something no one else knew how to fight.
Jodi Maiers was at home, and she only knew the stories from what was being told to her over the phone. So, she told it that way. And that is the best part about 13 Weeks. It’s told in the way that we all can feel, we can all relate.
In the darkness, only a voice on the phone, only the stories told to her, she told us. Her way of writing it was so brilliant. She does have moments of humor. You have to love those dark humor moments. But she has moments of total dark. That’s what we all went through, and she brought it to life.
In the most ingenious way I can’t even describe, she made it happen. She reminds you of what it was like when we were all locked down with no information. The only people who knew anything were the people who were there, and that was Scott Maiers.
He was there. He saw it firsthand. Jodi reports on his experience. Her way of weaving the tale and bringing you into the real of it is phenomenal.
I lost my breath a few times. I have to be honest, it was hard to read at times. But it was worth reading every word of it because it happened, it’s the truth, and it is the story of a real hero. If you ever wanted to meet one, Scott Maiers is the one. And Jodi Maiers tells that story in the only way it should be told.
