It wasn’t all bad
■■ On March 23, 43 employees clocked in at the Braskem petrochemical plant in Marcus Hook, Pa.—and didn’t clock out for the next 28 days. They worked and slept in the factory, pulling alternating 12-hour shifts to meet the soaring demand for polypropylene, a key ingredient in protective medical masks and gowns. The men all volunteered for the “live-in,” and by the end of the 28 days had produced tens of millions of pounds of the lifesaving material. “We were just happy to be able to help,” said shift supervisor Joe Boyce.
■■ A coffee connoisseur in San Francisco is handing out free cups of high-quality joe to neighbors and essential workers from his kitchen window. Tech employee Ben Ramirez had long dreamed of opening his own café, and when coffee shops shuttered for the lockdown, he decided to put his stockpile of beans to good use. Ramirez sits at his window from 8 a.m. to noon and whenever a health-care worker or mail carrier passes by, he offers them a cup of java—light or medium roast and made with fresh ground beans. He keeps a safe distance from customers by handing over the coffee using his son’s toy mechanical gorilla arm. “It’s been nice to bring the community together,” said Ramirez.
■■ For Karsten Tüchsen Hansen,
89, and Inga Rasmussen, 85, love knows no borders. The GermanDanish couple have been unable to visit each other’s homes since the border between their two countries was locked down in March. So every day, Rasmussen drives from her home in the south of Denmark, and Tüchsen Hansen bicycles from his in the north of Germany, to a border checkpoint where they can sit and chat over some schnapps—while never leaving their own countries and always staying a safe distance apart. “We’re here,” said Tüchsen Hansen, “because of love.”