A moment of Fourth of July kindness in Boston inspired these striking illustrations
Jerry Suh was moved by a rainy day, an old man, and the generosity of strangers.
Nothing can ruin Fourth of July fun like rain—you can’t watch fireworks, go to the beach, or grill hot dogs in a downpour. But Jerry Suh remembers the rained-out Boston celebrations of 2014 as the best Fourth of July she’s experienced. In fact, she’s preserved that memory through an illustration project.
Suh, 26, grew up in Boston and attended Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia for animation before moving out to Los Angeles, where she now works for Nickelodeon as a background painter.
In 2014, Suh went to see the fireworks on the Esplanade with her mom and her brother, but before the fireworks were even over, rain started to drench the crowd. Everyone was running around, trying to evacuate the Esplanade, Suh said, and it was mayhem.
As she and her family ran to the T station, they noticed an old man in a wheelchair who was stuck in a puddle. As they tried to get him out, three more people stopped to help: a pregnant woman and her husband, and an old lady.
“I thought it was interesting because out of all those people, the pregnant lady was the only one with an umbrella, and she held it above the man in the wheelchair,” Suh said.
They learned that the man was from Salem, and when they asked him where his guardian was, Suh said he replied, “I came here alone. I wanted to see the fireworks,” Suh said.
“We didn’t know what to do. There was no way for him to get home alone in that crowd and chaos,” she said.
The old woman took charge and waved to officers from the middle of the street, but they said wouldn’t be able to do anything and that 911 was backlogged and it would be hours before they could find him a way home. The old woman said she would take him back to Salem, telling Suh, her family, and the other couple that had stopped to help to head home themselves, Suh said.
“The last thing we saw was her pushing his wheelchair to the station, and it was kind of like a movie,” Suh said. “It was very memorable, seeing people’s kindness, and this old man’s innocence.”
Suh couldn’t stop thinking about that old man, so she started to imagine what his life may have been like, and “what his story could have been before I got to meet him,” she said.
“Just the fact that he came alone, [I thought], there’s got to be something that made him come from Salem to Boston all alone, and thought maybe he didn’t have a family,” Suh said. “I thought of the stuff he had with him in the wheelchair, and started to imagine his backstory, like he was in a hospital or a nursing home.”
Inspired by the interaction, she began to illustrate the old man, picturing what his life was like before that Fourth of July. She’s now been working on the personal project for a few months and also plans to create an animated short film of the events.
“We went to see the fireworks, but I saw more than fireworks.” Suh said. “We didn’t even really get to see them, it was just people trying to go back to the station. It could have been the worst Fourth of July in Boston, but it was actually the best.”
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