WE REMEMBER

ONE of the many things this pandemic has taken from us is the chance to comfort the grieving. In time, we’ll be able to hug one another again. For now, all we can do is recall their lives through the eyes of those who’ve known them best: family, friends and colleagues. May their good works live after them, inspiring us all to be our best, most compassionate selves in their honor.

Gerardo Jeronimo, 58

Jackson Heights

When he fell ill with COVID-19 in March, Gerardo Jeronimo thought it was just another bump in the road.

“‘I’m going to beat this — everything is going to be OK,’ ” Arlette Jeronimo, one of his four daughters, recalls him saying. “Even at the end, he was an optimist.”

His wife, Yolanda, also fell ill, but Jeronimo got worse as Yolanda’s condition improved. On April 1, after waking up from a nap — and not long after Yolanda returned from her job as a custodian, Jeronimo said, “I can’t breathe.” He died before the paramedics arrived.

Jeronimo worked as a server at Taby’s restaurant in Oyster Bay for more than 25 years, where he was known as “Jerry” and memorized regular customers’ orders. But arthritis in his knees sidelined him from service, prompting him to take a job with the UTOG private car service in 2017 as a driver, where he also bonded with repeat clients. He was always working, says Arlette, and planned on moving back to Mexico for retirement.

Jeronimo left his hometown of Puebla, Mexico, for New York in 1985 for better opportunities. He went to school to learn English and worked six days per week to send money to family members back home.

“He felt like he was the one who had to be responsible for his family,” Arlette says.

He also sought better opportunities for his children — all of whom grew up in his longtime Jackson Heights, Queens, home and later attended college. As kids, they’d get reprimanded whenever they tried to fake being sick in order to skip a day of school.

“‘No excuses,’ ” Arlette remembers him saying, adding that his lessons allowed them all to grow into responsible women. “‘I’m taking you to school.’ ”

He was also charitable to the homeless. If he saw someone begging for money on the street, she says, Jeronimo would give all the cash in his pocket, or buy food for the needy.

“He always taught us, ‘Don’t be rude to them — you don’t know what kind of life they had before,’ ” says Arlette.

Jeronimo took the most pride in his family. He’d often surprise his wife with flowers and loved having dinner with his daughters, whose accomplishments he shared with his friends.

“He always tried his best to give everything for us,” says Arlette.

Kenneth Danker, 82

Forest Hills

In 2017, Joe Robinson had a bad fall in his Queens home — sustaining injuries that left him in and out of the hospital.

His close friend Kenneth Danker, who passed away April 25, “was always there,” Robinson says.

“He was always there to see me and take care of anything for my wife,” adds Robinson. That selfless attitude, Robinson says, had everything to do with his upbringing.

“In our type of Jewish families, we took care of one another. That’s the way we operated. We were taught as kids to make sure you helped those less fortunate than yourself,” says Robinson. “That was Kenny: He was an unbelievable guy.”

Danker, along with Robinson, was a member of the Knights of Pythias fraternal organization. When Robinson’s injuries kept him from driving, Danker gave him rides to group meetings and dinners. And together, through the organization, the two spent their days assembling care packages for military members and vets — sending everything from hygiene products to Hebrew National salami. Every day, Danker arrived with a donut for Robinson.

“He’d help me load my car, take [the packages] to the post office and help me drag 25 to 30 boxes,” adds Robinson.

Danker leaves behind his wife, Myrna, as well as three daughters and two grandchildren.