Finding mental health support in a pandemic

Neighbors create ways to combat COVID’S loneliness

Kerry Davis sipped a beer as he stood in his neighbor’s driveway and surveyed the activity that surrounded him.

He watched the teenagers playing corn hole on the lawn, the friends sharing dinner from their lawn chairs they’d circled up under a shade tree in the park across the street, the kids playing tag on the corner, a new-to-the-neighborhood couple walking up the

street to see what was going on.

And as he thought about the loneliness so many have suffered during the past 18 months of this pandemic, he choked up.

“People are dying for community right now,” said Davis, a pastor with Vineyard Columbus. “In the hysteria and fear, people want to be comforted and they want to be loved.”

And so it is that here, at the corner of River Ridge Boulevard and Woodtown Drive in Gahanna’s Bryn Mawr neighborhood, dozens of people have safely visited outside on every Thursday night since April. Neighbors get their dinner from a different food truck each week that parks in front of Bryn Mawr Park and gather safely for fellowship, friendship and fun.

Here – with Cris Ferrante’s corner home as the touchstone – people have found a way to help ditch their pandemic blues, leave the isolation of their houses, and help the local food-vendor economy in the process.

“It keeps people from hiding in their homes and allows us to keep a sense of community as the pandemic drags on,” said the 61-year-old Ferrante, who owns a local dancewear business and who has long been known as his neighborhood’s party host. “It’s been a bright spot for all of us in this pandemic.”

So for 20 weeks last summer and fall and since April of this year, the neighborhood invites one food truck and one dessert truck to park on the street in front of the park (no city permit is needed) each Thursday – spread out, of course – with people coming and going over time. The gatherings will go through Oct. 21.

“It’s been something to look forward to each week when there hasn’t been a lot to look forward to,” said 41-year-old Andy Mcpeak, who lives within walking distance in the nearby Rose Run neighborhood, as he sat with his family and friends under that giant shade tree in the park. The three couples and their children were all eating the dinner they’d just bought from this night’s featured food truck, Holy Crepes.

Mcpeak’s wife, Angie, chimed in: “And we’ve met new friends, even some of them new to the neighborhood. Think about them, the people who moved during a pandemic and had no way to get to know anyone around.”

As the pandemic shows few signs of slowing – and as experts are suggesting it might even worsen again as we head into the cold of winter – there’s a renewed (or maybe sustained) focus on keeping our spirits up and guarding our mental health.

Experts all agree on the basics as good practice: Limit consumption of gloom-and-doom news, exercise and sleep and eat right to protect your body and mind, stay connected to others, and seek help when needed.

The Dispatch asked a few people to share an activity that has been a saving grace for their mental health in these stressful times, something others might be able to do to help them as well.

“People have even been unable to travel to be their own families,” Ferrante said, “so making plans to do something in your neighborhood and get to know people fills a void of the loneliness.”

Pandemic ignites music collaboration

When Ed Plunkett needs an escape from pandemic stress, he heads down to the basement of his family’s Westgate home and picks up one of his nearly a dozen guitars.

And with each pluck and strum, he feels a bit more anxiety rush from his brain and a bit more peace slide into his soul.

“Music brings you some joy in some real rough times,” said Plunkett, a 57year-old library cataloger at Ohio State University. “It does heal because there are no real mistakes. Especially if you are just sitting down in the basement jamming away.”

He has always played, but in April, he found some new joy in collaborating on old cover songs with a college buddy who now lives near Albany, New York.

Plunkett had recorded a rendition of Burt Bacharach’s “This Guy’s in Love with You” and uploaded it to his own Youtube channel.

That old friend saw it, added some drums and base to filled in the song and sent a file back to Plunkett.

Now, the two call themselves the Jangle Brothers and have mixed (both with their own instruments and using the Garageband digital audio app)

about a dozen songs and have posted them to Soundcloud.

The ability of music to shape our mental health has long been documented by researchers. The National Alliance on Mental Health has tons of material about the benefits to our psyche – whether it be listening to music, playing an instrument or composing a song.

From an article posted to NAMI’S website a few years ago: “Music acts as a medium for processing emotions, trauma, and grief – but music can also be utilized as a regulating or calming agent for anxiety …”

“Playing gives me some structure. I can go downstairs and put something together and feel good about it,” Plunkett said. “And with all the crap in the world, it can be hard to feel good about some things sometimes.”

Jill Elia sat hunched over a canvas and with slow and methodical precision, pulled the thread time and time again through the corner of what will become a traditional – and elaborate – needlepointed Christmas stocking for her newest grandchild.

The repetitive movements of stitch after stitch after stitch relax both her body and her mind.

Needlework (various types of embroidery

and cross stitch) exploded during the pandemic. Elia, who owns Louise’s Needlework in Powell, said that was for a number of reasons.

Research shows that for generations, sewing and stitching has been used to both calm and heal. And Elia even brought a local psychologist in for a workshop (pre-pandemic) to explain how it works as therapy.

“The rhythm and motion is very soothing for your mind and, especially in times of great stress, it can take you to a different place,” she said.

Pre-pandemic, needlework has already seen something of a resurgence because younger generations were gravitating toward nostalgia and traditional design and decor (often with an irreverent twist now, though).

So the pandemic only proved to fuel that already simmering fire.

“People were shut in and had nothing to do. You’d done all the puzzles and watched all the movies and you can only eat so much,” Eliah said. “So they looked for ways to be creative. Also, it brings you joy once you see something you’ve made.” hzachariah@dispatch.com @hollyzachariah

Kevin Christman, left, gets a fist bump from Cris Ferrante. As a way to keep people connected, Ferrante and his neighbors have hosted food truck parties in their neighborhood since the pandemic began.

PHOTOS BY DORAL CHENOWETH/ COLUMBUS DISPATCH Renee Sheppard serves from her Water Ice Shoppe during a neighborhood gathering in Gahanna.

DORAL CHENOWETH/COLUMBUS DISPATCH Anna Marrison, left, shares a laugh with Molly Domanski during a Thursday night food truck dinner in their Gahanna neighborhood. In the stroller is Anna’s 6-month-old daughter, Judah. As a way to build community and keep people connected, Cris Ferrante and his neighbors have hosted weekly food truck parties in their Gahanna neighborhood since the pandemic began.

COURTNEY HERGESHEIMER/COLUMBUS DISPATCH Jill Elia, owner of Louise’s Needlepoint in Powell, works on a Christmas stocking for her youngest grandson. Elia said needlepoint as a hobby, with its calming benefits, has exploded as an outlet during the pandemic.

ED PLUNKETT PHOTO Ed Plunkett, an Ohio State University library cataloger, plays the guitar in the basement of his Westgate neighborhood home. Plunkett has turned to music to get him through the seemingly never-ending pandemic.