Eyes that see the good in things: Farewell

As we live through this COVID-19 pandemic, stories about good things are plentiful. I am seeing them everywhere… on the news, in the papers and in social media. This pandemic has united the world against one common foe. Video clips from Brazil showed residents of high-rise apartments joining together, despite the challenges of social distancing, to sing together and the sweet sound of their song swelled across the entire city. Israelis also joined to make noise from their balconies, letting the world know that we are all in this together. Hearts started appearing in windows across our communities, people played music from their front doorsteps. These are the kinds of stories that I want to remember from this pandemic. The stories that show the indomitable spirit of the human people, stories that show that although we may be physically apart, we are still together.

The first Facebook share came from Italy. 102-year-old Italica Grondona survived COVID-19 and made a full recovery. Grondona, who lives in Genoa in northern Italy, an area hardest hit by the virus, was admitted to the hospital in early March due to mild heart failure. She had mild symptoms of COVID-19 and tested positive for the disease. Because of her age and underlying health conditions, doctors are amazed by her recovery.

"We did very little, she recovered on her own,” Grondona's doctor, Vera Sicbaldi, told CNN. The medical team were so impressed that they came up with a nickname for their miraculous patient: "We nicknamed her ‘Highlander’—the immortal." Her doctors also said that she may very likely be one of the few people to have survived both the 1918 Spanish Flu and coronavirus.

The second Facebook story came when the virus hit the United States. This message, shared by Glenn Stout takes place in a grocery store full of people preparing for a shutdown of their city. People were preparing for the shutdown and buying the items that they thought they would need during that time. The lines were long, and he said that you could read the worry and anxiety on the faces of the people all around you.

He looked behind him at a gentleman who was obviously dressed in his work clothes and he shared that he had just lost his job, a job that he had held for over 30 years. Now, because of the virus, all the employees had been told not to come back, indefinitely. He had a wife and four kids, and the paycheck that he depended on was suddenly gone.

It was a stark reminder of the reality that is taking place across our nation, really across the entire world. So, as the out-of-work man waited behind him, he finished paying for the few items that he had in his cart and then asked the cashier if he could use the hand sanitizer that was behind her on the counter. He walked behind her and whispered to her that he wanted to pay for the gentleman behind him, as well. In addition to the groceries and supplies in his cart, he added a gift card that he thought would pay for groceries for the gentleman’s family for a month.

He said that although he never learned the man’s name, he will always remember his face. With tears running down both of their faces, the man told him that he didn’t need to do that.

“Yes, I did,” he responded. “I love you and someday you can do the same for someone else… go and feed your family.”

He said something wonderful happened then. The chaos stopped for a short moment of time, and if only for a moment, changed faces of tension and fear to faces of joy and love.

The third Facebook story came from my cousin’s Facebook page, when he shared a post from his church in Grand Forks. I saw another case where churches are working to find “out of the box” ways to still meet the needs of their parishioners. Not only is this church is streaming their church service, they have also set up small groups to meet, using Zoom. So, people are coming together in their small groups, via a “Zoom room.”

Their Good Friday service is scheduled to be a drive-in movie where their parishioners can join in their parking lot, watch the movie from their car and tune in to the sound on their radio. Their Easter service will be a church service with the pastor and the worship team on the lawn of the church, once again, with the parishioners in their vehicles, listening on their radios.

The fourth Facebook story came from New Rockford. Celebrating Holy Week is difficult when people can’t come together. Once again, there was that “out of the box” thinking that safely brought people together to celebrate Palm Sunday. As I watched the parade of palm branch decorated vehicles process through the streets with palm fronds waving and horns honking, I was struck by the similarity to the first Palm Sunday. That day which was also out in the streets with a celebration of cheering people and waving palm branches. Churches here continue to come together, not only meeting the needs of those people who can connect through technology but are finding ways to bring their message to those who can’t.

Today, I write my last column and I want to say thank you to the people who have followed it and have encouraged me along the way. When I agreed to write a newspaper column roughly four years ago, I knew that a column I enjoyed writing would have to be something uplifting, something positive, something that celebrated the good in life.

That column has evolved a bit over the years, but it has kept my eyes and ears open to hear the good stories that certainly still exist in the world. Writers understand when I say that sometimes those stories or columns kept me awake at night after a piece had been submitted, worried that the piece wasn’t quite what you wanted it to be. I worry that I wrote something stupid or insensitive, got the facts wrong or misspelled a name.

I remember the discomfort I felt when I submitted a column knowing that I shared just a little bit too much of myself. Or knew that I shared more about my family than they ever agreed to. It goes against my grain to introduce myself into my writing and, if you remember, I was forbidden to talk about my husband. But, at times I did anyway.

I will keep writing, just in a different format, but I wanted you to know that it was the readers and your comments and encouragement that kept me writing. You made it fun and worthwhile, and I hope that you continue to look for the good in things. I know I will.

Thank you.