‘I’m here to thank God for one more year,’ says Fatima Steiner. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
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By Rich Pollack
Fatima Steiner hadn’t planned on spending her birthday on the beach in Delray waiting for the sun to rise.
Then the stars aligned and there she was, up to her ankles in seawater, her cellphone poised to catch a once-a-day magical moment.
“It was meant to be,” she said.
A Brazilian by birth, Steiner has lived in Delray Beach for half a decade but had never ventured out to the beach at the crack of dawn to see the sunrise.
“I always see the sunsets but it’s taken me five years to see the sunrise,” she said.
It could have taken another couple of years if her husband’s cardiologist hadn’t scheduled an angioplasty for 6 a.m. that early December day.
Rather than go back home, Steiner chose to head to the beach and take in the blend of rising rays of sunlight with the gathering of clouds.
It was, she says, one way to take her mind off her worries about her husband’s health, while at the same time, appreciate the connection between the sunrise and her birthday.
“The sunrise is the start of a new day,” she said. “My next year starts today with the sunrise.”
Watching the rising sun was also a bit of a spiritual experience for Steiner.
“I’m here to thank God for one more year,” she said.
Chances are she won’t be waiting another five years — or for her husband to have another early morning doctor’s visit — to be back on the beach waiting for the beginning of a new day.
“It’s just so beautiful,” she said.
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