Clearly, the coronavirus is testing everyone’s patience and resolve. Yet, amid the uncertainty, a resilient spirit thrives.
To provide a bit of a diversion from the news around us, we’ve asked our community contributors to share their personal stories of optimism during these troubling times.
Their stories will appear weekly. We hope you find them inspirational. We hope they provide you with some perspective. And we hope they remind you, as captured in some of their personal stories, that we are all in this together.
‘Really, really blessed’
I am an 85-year-old woman who lives in Stone Mountain.
Like everyone else, I have been sheltering in place while my son and my daughter-in-law, Bo and Kim Shurling, have been doing the same in their home in Marietta.
For the past five or six weeks, we hadn’t seen each other at all.
I was feeling lonely and sad. It was hard not to be with them because we always spend Easter together.
Well, I want to share with you a beautiful surprise.
On Easter Sunday, they showed up in my carport, set up their keyboard, music and equipment. With Kim playing the keyboard, they presented me with a beautiful concert of all my favorite hymns – “When we all get to heaven,” “Softly and tenderly” and “How great thou art.”
You could hear the music all over the neighborhood. Cars stopped and listened to the music.
I sat in a chair right by the kitchen door.
Two next-door neighbors came over and sat on the porch. (We all “social distanced.”) They joined us as we sang along.
It was one of the sweetest experiences I have ever had, and I will never forget it.
How very thoughtful of them to do this.
They even brought me a nice big Easter basket with my favorite candy, a chocolate rabbit.
They turned my lonely day into one of great joy and happiness.
I’m really, really blessed. I just pray for everybody else.
I wanted to hug them so badly, but we were all practicing “social distancing” all the time.
Even though we couldn’t touch, there was so much love expressed in my carport on that wonderful Easter Sunday.
Barbara Shurling retired after more than three decades with the Georgia Department of Public Health, where she was the director of staff development and training.
About the Author
