One by one, 85 ambulances and firetrucks trickled down the narrow street in a somber procession, snaking their way through the Port Monmouth section of Middletown.
As the first responders rolled past the forest green house, they each blared their sirens to honor one of their own.
Robert Weber, a Middletown First Aid and Rescue Squad volunteer and firefighter, was only 44 when he died April 15 from complications of the coronavirus. One of his five siblings recorded the caravan of emergency vehicles that came a day later to salute her brother. Choked up from watching the memorial drive-by, Jennifer Weber could only shake her head at the irony.
“Robert was running after firetrucks and ambulances since he was 5 years old," she said. “He’d be chasing after their sirens if he was here."
The scene that unfolded on a brisk Thursday evening was just one of more than a dozen memorials that have occurred in New Jersey communities this month.