Personal Journeys: Hurricane season

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Staff writer Jill Vejnoska flies home to be with her mother during Hurricane Sandy and faces the heavy responsibility of caring for an aging parent.

This family photo in 1966 captures author Jill Vejnoska, age 7, with her mom, Sally Vejnoska, on Long Beach Island, N.J. Going “down the shore” was a summer ritual for the family. Hurricane Sandy hit the hardest along the state’s coastline.

Sally Vejnoska keeps a tight hold on her infant daughter, Jill, during a ferry ride across New York Harbor. When Jill was a child, she imagined her stylish mother was a cross between Lucille Ball and Lauren Bacall.

Jill Vejnoska poses with her parents, Larry and Sally, and now deceased brother, Mark, on the boardwalk in Atlantic City. The area was among the hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy.

Siblings Chris and Jill Vejnoska meet up on a happy occasion — the whole family gathered in Mexico for his wedding in March 2009.

More than a week after the storm, the power was back on at a cousin’s house when Jill Vejnoska posed with her mother, Sally. The power was still out a mile away at Sally’s house.

Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Sandy hit, the power lines were back up but trees remained down on the street where the Vejnoska family home is located in New Jersey.

Another shot of the trees down two weeks after the storm hit.

About the reporter: Jill Vejnoska is a features writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where her assignments over the past 20 years have taken her into the worlds of sports, politics, pop culture and more. She’s pulled off the rare tandem of having covered both Hillary Clinton’s first Senate campaign and Olympic synchronized swimming. A native of Westfield, N.J., she lives near Piedmont Park in Atlanta.

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This family photo in 1966 captures author Jill Vejnoska, age 7, with her mom, Sally Vejnoska, on Long Beach Island, N.J. Going “down the shore” was a summer ritual for the family. Hurricane Sandy hit the hardest along the state’s coastline.

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