The holidays arrive as the nation undergoes a grim December, with the virus surging to record levels in many parts of the country. Hospital beds are filling up and some facilities are opening overflow centers in parking lot tents or buildings used for other purposes.
For today, let's take a break from all that. "One Good Thing" is a series that highlights individuals whose actions provide glimmers of joy in these hard times — stories of people who find a way to make a difference, no matter how small. Here are three stories of resilience and spirit for your holiday reading.
RICHMOND, Va. — Frank Pichel's Christmas trees will probably never be chosen to light up New York's Rockefeller Center. They look more like the droopy, pitiful tree made famous in the 1965 children's animated classic, "A Charlie Brown Christmas."
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But Pichel's trees have been flying off a tiny neighborhood lot since he started selling them last month to raise money for a private middle school that provides scholarships for students from an impoverished area of Richmond, Va.
Customer Camm Tyler, a 36-year-old digital consultant, looked over his uneven tree as he propped it up against a fence and prepared to carry it home: "This is the perfect 2020 tree."
Pichel first cut down 70 scraggly trees, loaded them into the back of his pickup truck and started selling them right after Thanksgiving from a small grassy lot he rented for $1. He was stunned by the response. He sold 180 trees, raising a total of $5,554 for the school. He let people set their own prices; most paid $20 to $50 for a tree.
Rei Alvarez, an illustrator and musician, said he and his wife loved the nostalgia and "Charlie Brown aesthetic" of Pichel's trees. "As an artist, I know it's not what you have, it's what you do with it," he said. "You give the few branches you have a little love."
A wave of greeting cards collected independently by hospitals nationwide this December has started turning up in rooms of patients cut off from the support of visitors. It does not appear to have any central coordination; many hospitals just decided on their own that it would be a kind thing to do.
Realizing this year's unique dynamic, hospitals asked adults, organizations and schoolchildren to either make or buy holiday cards and send them to the institutions for distribution to patients. The goal is for everyone in the hospital to get a card and at least a tiny bit of holiday cheer.
A New Jersey hospital put out a request for cards in late November and had received nearly 1,000 by early December. They range from elaborate store-bought cards to hand-drawn construction-paper creations from grade-school children, several wishing the recipient “Happy Hoildays!" or a “Meery Christmas!”
A more somber note came tucked inside a box of Christmas cards that was short and to the point. “If you could give these to people on the top floor where my husband died, I would appreciate it,” a woman named Lori wrote.
ALZANO LOMBARDO, Italy — Emotions are running high this holiday season at the Martino Zanchi Foundation nursing home in northern Italy near Bergamo after months of near-total isolation for its residents.
Long-time resident Celestina Comotti was disbelieving as a staff member read aloud a Christmas greeting from a family peering at her expectantly over a video call. The 81-year-old woman dissolved into tears. "I am trembling,” she said, adjusting her eyeglasses.
Despite a grim year marked by death and loneliness, the holiday spirit is descending on the Zanchi nursing home, one of the first in Italy to shut its doors to visitors after a COVID-19 case was confirmed in the nearby hospital on Feb. 23.
The bearers of glad tidings were the so-called “grandchildren of Santa Claus,” people who answered a charity’s call to spread cheer to elderly nursing home residents, many of whom live far from their families or don’t have any family members left.
