Stories connect us and heal us. These powerful, human stories offer some good news: our families, friends and neighbors are moving forward amid coronavirus
By Kelley Benham French | USA TODAY
We’re watching the coronavirus curve rocket northward on the graph like a rollercoaster off its rails. The statistics are shifting and shapeless as sand. The uncertainty makes it hard to breathe. The grief is upon us, in waves, and the worst, we fear, still lies ahead.
Yet hour by hour we march forward. We reach out through windows and screens to parents we fear we may never hug again. We find ways to help a neighbor or a nurse. We leave a pack of gloves for the trash collector. We pick up an extra jug of milk for a friend. We take to the streets and burst into ragged song, and we laugh. We welcome new babies into an uncertain, confusing world, and we allow ourselves to be overtaken by the world’s oldest and most elemental joy. We learn to appreciate every breath.
Stories can infuse meaning into events that feel random and cruel. They are our history and our guide. The stories here remind us that others have survived this and worse, and that we can find, in so much churning loss, kernels of resolve.
We’re proud to bring you these stories – human moments of resilience and sacrifice and celebration and faith. If you know of someone we should write about, send us a note. We’d love to tell your story, too.
