Massapequa Writer Contributes Essay to Gloria Gaynor's Book

An essay by Massapequa writer Dr. Cynthia Paulis has been selected to be in a book, by singing star Gloria Gaynor.

Paulis, an emergency room physician who's written for several publications including Patch, wrote a piece about the Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy that was included in the book "We Will Survive."

The book consists of 40 essays of survival and inspiration. It came out earlier this month.

"It's sort of like a historical chronicle of what happened after Sandy," Paulis said of the piece which recounts her experiences beginning a few days before the storm, when there was skepticism about its strength.

She submitted the story after being encouraged by a writing professor. "The next day, I got an email from them, I didn't realize it was a world-wide competition," she said.

Paulis recounted a trip to the beach where she saw someone nearly get swept out to sea before his  father rescued him.  "I remember thinking, this is going to be rally bad," she said.

She lost power for 12 days and spent time after the storm volunteering for the Red Cross,  Paulis also helped neighbors recover as best they could and in her spare time interviewed people about what they were going through.

"Nearly all of them said, "I was lucky, I was blessed that I survived this."

Paulis, who's volunteered to help out tornado victims in Oklahoma and Hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans, says  that  she's moved by the spirit she sees in communities recovering from these disasters.

She wants her essay to serve as a reminder of what that spirit was like for residents of Massapequa. "It would be nice if during the holiday season, we could keep it day to day."