A LOOK BACK Farewell 2020

As we bid a farewell to 2020, most would agree, it has been a challenging year. When pondering the past 10 months, the word ‘surreal’ dances in my thoughts. It is a year that will be forever etched in our minds and written in our history books.

It began with whispers of an outbreak of a strange, but highly contagious and deadly virus in Wuhan, China. We were safe or so we thought. After all, it was an ocean away, in a place unknown to most of us. By mid-January, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) had arrived in North America. Within six weeks, our world, as we knew it, would be drastically changed. The word ‘pandemic’ would become part of our everyday lexicon, and its impact would dictate and dominate most aspects of our lives for the balance of 2020 and will likely effect us significantly in 2021 and beyond.

In reflecting on this past year, we reached out to people, across a wide spectrum, and asked how they were coping. How were they navigating through this unchartered pandemic storm? We asked if they were willing to share a few insights, experiences, and stories. We wanted to hear the good, the bad, and (a little bit) of the ugly.

With their help, we have a compiled some remarkable stories and short sound bites that represent 2020 for many of us. Not surprisingly, we discovered consistent messaging throughout many of these stories. The common thread is resiliency. We discovered most people were able to pivot, change and adapt to a new normal. We learned quickly that we were all in this together.

Sadly, it has been a year of profound sadness for many families who lost loved ones to this deadly virus. But it also has been a year of stories about compassion, unsung heroes, and narratives of kindness.

Recently, I asked my friend Holly how she summed up this past year. She pondered the question for a few minutes. “It is a lot, about your perspective. Do you look at the glass as half full or half empty”? So, building on this proverbial phrase, our contributing writers, have reached out to friends, family, and strangers to hear their stories and find out if their glass was ‘half full or half empty’ in 2020. Depending on the day, for many people it was both. Farewell 2020.