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Jonathan Eric Briley: Sunrises and Sunsets

 

Every morning, Jonathan Eric Briley watched the sunrise from New York City's highest peak -- the north tower's 110th floor, where he was the audio-visual technician for Windows on the World. "He'd tell me," said Gwendolyn Briley- Strand, his sister, "there was nothing like it."

Sunrises were one of Mr. Briley's many loves. Others were music, the Lord and the First Baptist Church of Elmsford, N.Y. As a boy, he played gospel music on the piano. Later, he taught himself guitar and learned jazz and rock as well. Last year, he was ordained a deacon at First Baptist -- a job, said Mrs. Briley-Strand, for a humble and helpful man. He drove his father, the Rev. Alexander Briley, the pastor, to church, helped him into his robes and visited the hospital and homes of the sick and grieving. "He was," said his wife, Hillary, "one of a kind."

The Tuesday after Labor Day, he nipped down to Florida for a week with his sisters. "All we did," said Mrs. Briley-Strand, "was watch the sun rise. We took our coffee with a little Kahlúa to the beach. We relaxed and cooked. We watched the sunrise. We watched it set. It was manna from heaven."

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From "Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times