Modern Day Heroes

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LUCY BURDETTE: I’m sorry to be nudging us to talk about more COVID-19 subjects, but it’s hard to think about much else isn’t it? I manage to get away a bit if I get into my manuscript (ha! As if!) or if reading a really good book or watching a good TV show, but then the TV and online news drags me back. So I started thinking about how some people rise to a terrible challenge in a great way and others...don’t. We have a new set of heroes these times and I thought we could chat about that. Here are a few of mine… The first is Governor Andrew Cuomo. I admire how he’s handled the burgeoning crisis in New York-- his calmness, his candor, his caring as he tries to lead through this impossible time with his own state at the epicenter, and sharp politics to navigate.

I absolutely loved this sentence from "What the ‘Cuomo 2020’ Fantasy Says About 2020 Reality: by Matt Flegenheimer: (NYT) because it described me so perfectly:

"His is a new coalition, couch-bound and spooked, finding small comforts where few had sought sustenance before: in the tender embrace of a disaster briefing by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo."

Next is yoga and other exercise teachers. They have flocked online to lead classes that help people manage anxiety and feel strong in a terrible time. I’m taking yoga classes three times a week, and now we’ve discovered that our pilates teacher in CT has a facebook presence. Exercise aside, the classes are such a great way to feel less alone.

My favorite yoga teacher, Ali Beale

Obvious heroes are the medical people on the frontlines. Many of you will have seen this photo of my daughter in her “moon suit.” She’s an ER doc and this is what they wear to intubate a patient, which is a very dangerous point for spreading the virus.  (With gloves on of course!) My nephew is an ER resident and honestly, we are terrified for both of them. And they are scared too--but they do what they are called to do. It’s not only doctors--all the medical professionals and paraprofessionals are in danger, and yet doing their jobs. 

And last, ministers. They aren’t all heroes (don’t get me started on those who are insisting on continuing to meet in person), but we belong to two lovely churches, one in Key West and one in Madison. Neither wasted a nanosecond realizing they needed to move services online. I find watching them to be a huge comfort--more familiarity and love in a horrible time.

Our dear friend Steve Torrence at an Easter sunrise service, with friend Cathy

(And ps if you should wish to try either of those services, both are on Facebook, https://www.Facebook.com/mcckeywest and https://www.facebook.com/fccmadison/)

Who are your heroes right now?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Dr. Fauci. I believe every word he says, and he knows what he’s talking about. That’s astonishingly reassuring. Listening to him, we get the facts. If he doesn't know something, he says so. Honesty and intelligence and true science. That’s all I really need.

And the people who work in grocery stores, and  the food delivery people. I almost cry every time they come to the door. How brave of them to take care of us.

My next door neighbors. On one side, Maureen, who emailed me today to see if we wanted a few masks and a box of gloves. She had extra, she said. ::amazing::

And on the other side, neighbor Amy. Who goes to the produce store for us when she goes for her family. We give her our whole milk and potatoes, and she gives us access to lettuce and apples. 

Teachers. My step-daughter teaches kindergarten. She now teaches her littles via zoom, while handling an 11 year old son and a 16 year old son and a husband who works from home in a two-bedroom/living room-dining room/kitchen in crowded Brooklyn. HOW does she do that?

Moms of all kinds, in fact. My editor is home with a 2year old and a 4 year old. SHe takes care of the kids, and home schools, from 6am to 2pm, while her husband uses the bedroom/office. Then she does her editing work from 2pm til 10pm, while her husband handles the kids. AND! They just got a new dog. The dog’s name is Lucky. 

RHYS BOWEN: We have encountered nothing but kindness and consideration. My daughter Clare bakes bread, does shopping and leaves items at our front door 

I have three family members who are teachers and have all had to come up with online methods of teaching and reaching out to students. This has involved a steep learning curve especially for my daughter-in-law who is a special ed coordinator and my daughter who was charged with setting up the online teaching environment for her whole school.

Obviously the medical personnel but the store clerks are my heroes too. Each time we brave the supermarket they have been caring and cheerful, handing us a sanitized cart as we enter. 

My son is a healing specialist whose practice is closed but is putting out wonderful daily chats on how to cope. My daughter Jane is another hero. She owns a swim center that she has had to close but continues to pay her employees and has set up online fitness and yoga classes. It seems most people rise to the occasion except a few of my daughters club members, one of whom wrote, in all caps: why the hell should I pay dues for a club that is closed?

Stay safe everyone!

JENN McKINLAY: My college roommate, Annette, is a hospital nurse. Needless to say, I am in awe of her ability to provide care and support not only to the patients she’s charged with but also to her fellow healthcare workers, who are all working with insufficient equipment. I can’t even fathom the mental toll this is taking on all of them.

Like Hank, I am boggled by the awesome teachers who scrambled to take their curriculums into unfamiliar online forums - my god, they are heroes! I mean if I had to homeschool the Hooligans, they’d be dumb as bricks. 

Next up, the grocery/pharmacy/retail store clerks. Putting themselves at risk by exposure to an invisible enemy just so we can get our Pop Tarts and bottles of Lysol. I will never take my grocers for granted again - never - not ever.

HALLIE EPHRON: Definitely the doctors and nurses and hospital staff that are responding in this crisis. Like Lucy’s Molly, our friend Pat’s daughter who’s a doctor in Austin has volunteered to work an emergency room in NYC. My daughter’s dearest friend, a nurse, who manages emergency medicine at a major hospital in NY and sent her husband and little boy to her parents while she’s working 10 hours a day. She knows it’s only a matter of when, not if she’ll get sick herself.

My children who’ve hammered it into my head that I am not to run errands. 

Dr. David Price of Cornell Weill Medical Center NY whose calming video Rhys shared yesterday. 

https://vimeo.com/399733860

My neighbors on one side, he’s a senior State police officer who goes to work every day. His wife, a reading specialist who’s been driving all over the city trying to deliver learning materials to her students. My neighbor on the other side, an electrical worker who’s “on call” 24/7. Our OTHER neighbor’s grandkids who left lovely chalk messages on the sidewalk for us all to feel just a bit more connected.

 The staff at my local Stop n Shop on Newport Ave in Quincy, MA. THANK YOU!

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Some of my heroes are the people who are doing videos and podcasts and radio shows from their living rooms to make me laugh - Noah Trevor at the Daily (Self-Distancing) Show, Peter Sagel on Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, Samantha Bee doing BEEing at Home from the woods behind her house - I love knowing that they’re in the same straits we all are, and are carrying on being funny at a time when it can be hard to find anything to laugh about.

One of my heroes is my young friend Jess, who is working 50-60 hours a week at a small local chain of grocery stores and shopping for us and dropping off groceries and special goodies from her store every week. Her help, after long hours on the job, means none of us needs to go out to stores.

Also, going out to the box to fetch the mail has become a highlight of the day, and I’m deeply grateful that the men and women of the US Postal Service are out there every day, picking up and delivering mail. I’m going to leave a thank-you note in my mailbox to let ours know how much I appreciate him!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Yes, definitely on the mail carriers. A thank you note is a good idea, Julia. And our UPS and FedEx drivers, who are working long hours to get things to people. All the health care workers and first responders, and all the grocery store employees and delivery people. My friend’s ER doc son who got drive-through testing and telemed off the ground for his Florida hospital and is spending long hours away from his wife and three-year-old. And I’m with Julia on all the folks that are entertaining the rest of us from their living rooms.

Your turn Reds, who are your heroes right now?

And one more thing, we miss seeing our friends in person so much, but hoped you might like to share our first zoom...thanks for being with us today and every day you can!