“My Mind Is So Hooked On Cleaning”

I met Jewel Young while following a volunteer medical team on rounds in a Far Rockaway public housing complex. 
Jewel had been living without power, heat or phone service for most of the last three weeks. She was low on thyroid pills, and her back ached from cleaning mud off the floors. Waterlogged photo albums -- a lifetime of ruined memories -- lay across the coffee table. But Jewel didn’t confess to many troubles. 
Although her first floor apartment had taken on six feet of seawater, the mold inspector still hadn’t been to visit.