Worst of times brings out the best in many

It wasn’t even a month ago — on March 10 — that spring potholes and regional councillors determined to root out news leakers among them dominated our front page.

The best COVID-19 could do that day was a small story on St. Catharines Transit giving its buses a more thorough cleaning than usual. There were no cases in Niagara at that point. Canada was just then reporting its first COVID-19 death.

Twenty-nine days and more than 325 lost lives later (including at least eight in Niagara), it’s hard to find a story that isn’t related to COVID-19 somehow.

You’d like to read them; we’d love to write them, but the coronavirus has crept into the corners of pretty much everything any of us do.

Niagara’s first confirmed case was reported March 13, the same day Queen’s Park announced schools would remain closed until at least April 5.

Historians will study 2020 for years to come. But as bad as times are now, hopefully, the goodwill and neighbourliness that is seeing us through will be remembered, too. Who wasn’t moved by the sight of fire trucks, ambulances and police cruisers parading by our hospitals in a show of heartfelt thanks to the workers inside?

While social distancing keeps us at least six feet apart from each otherneighbours are still finding ways to stay connected. They’ve organized scavenger hunts where people on the street put pictures or stuffed animals in their windows for passersby to find. Others have planned online craft sessions or book clubs.

All around the world and here, too, people are holding remote exercise sessions, staging dances in their driveways or joining singsongs from their balconies — things we would likely never do in normal times.

Most recently, people are looking for creative ways to produce masks that can be worn while out in the public. It’s a way to pitch in, while helping ensure the best-quality face coverings go where they’re most needed: to hospital and nursing home staffs.

It’s not just the people isolating at home who have stepped up to help.

Many businesses have adapted, not only to survive but also to aid the effort to contain the coronavirus. Owners have gone above and beyond to keep as many staff as possible employed, despite the heavy financial burden.

Others have put the ingredients and materials they work with to different uses, such as wineries and distillers using their alcohol to produce disinfectants for front-line workers.

In nursing homes, caring staff take extraordinary steps to help residents who are cut off from friends and family. They help them communicate with loved ones via Skype or FaceTime, and assist them making signs to paste in windows for visitors outside to see.

The worst of times really can bring out the best in us, from simple acts to grand gestures. We know we will get through this. We’ll do it together.

Here at the paper, we will continue to report the grim facts, but we want to know the good stories you’ve heard, too. Tell us about the efforts of ordinary people or storekeepers or businesses that impress you. Let us know about neighbourhoods coming together and how the haves are helping the havenots.

It’s important to hear the latest counts and to heed the warnings. But we want to pass on the good news we hear during the days of COVID-19, too. We can’t get to them all, but please let us know.

Editor-in-chief Angus Scott’s email address is angus.scott@niagaradailies.com.