My Silver Lining In All This

You never know who your heroes are when you pass them in the elevator.

Thank you to Natalie Frank, Ph.D., a hero of mine for writing while struck down with COVID-19, for suggesting this prompt, for Pomposity.

About 4,000 years ago, in the before time, when people walked freely about the land without masks and didn’t get into fights if you moved closer than six feet, I had my peace and quiet disturbed when tenants moved into the apartment above me.

The news that I had new neighbors filled me with trepidation. The previous tenants had lived above me for at least a dozen years, though I would never have known it. They managed to cohabitate with a baby and a labradoodle without making a sound. In previous years, noisy tenants had made my life miserable, and I feared the new residents would shatter the quiet enjoyment of my premises. Which they soon did.

By noise tenant standards, the new people were not obnoxious, but still. I’d been spoiled. On one particularly noisy weekend, I’d had enough. Though I knocked on the door ready for blood, I gave the beautiful young woman who answered my best, solicitous smile. She could not have been nicer and apologized for the loud music.

Problem solved, I thought, except it wasn’t. In a few weeks, the noise kept me awake. If you’ve ever been a renter and had inconsiderate neighbors, you can imagine the four-letter words that flooded my bedroom as I glared up at the ceiling.

Still trying to make peace, I crafted a firm but neighborly letter requesting them to STFU. Politely, that is.

Two days later, a note appeared under my door with a message that I had a delivery outside my door. A plate of cookies and brownies with a note of apology.

Color me gobsmacked and embarrassed at my rush to judgment about the reaction I’d get from my letter. Especially when I could tell my neighbors were making serious attempts to STFU. My anger was gone; they did what we all need; they understood my point of view, and I was oh so grateful.

Fast forward a few weeks, and the world fell apart.

Noisy neighbors became the last of my worries.

In fact, all my priorities got rearranged in a hurry. I quickly assessed my risk and it was high. My age, some lung issues, a recent bout of a mild illness that indicated my immune system was suppressed made me realize I might not survive COVID-19 if I got infected. I made the decision not to leave my apartment for any reason. I’d do my laundry in my bathroom and order all my needs online.

Except, as soon as my city declared shelter-in-place, my heroes began showing up. People I’d see in the lobby only when we’d get our mail offered to run errands for me. People I knew only casually would drop my packages left in the lobby outside my door. Neighbors who have become friends over the years volunteered to collect my mail, take out my trash, do all my grocery shopping.

These wonderful people have made it possible for me to stay completely indoors and avoid the virus completely. My job is to use rubber gloves when I open my door and bring my items into my apartment. I scrub everything down according to the latest directions, and then try to focus on living as normally as possible inside my little cocoon.

My level of comfort, my ability to live safe from the virus — three weeks since face to face contact with another human and no symptoms and a normal temperature every day — is due to these warm, thoughtful, giving neighbors. They are part of the silver lining in all this horror for me. They may indeed be saving my life.

Of course, I still have my FaceTime and Skype calls to keep me connected to the outside world. I text with my daughter daily and other close friends. Saturday will bring my very first cocktail party via Zoom so I’ll really feel a part of this Shelter-In-Place world.

However, yesterday I received one of the best gifts ever.

I have a close friend of over a dozen years. We’ve gone through many life-altering events from divorces to life-threatening illnesses, to dating disasters, to cruises from the top of the world to the bottom, and countless wonderful meals together. We happened to be Skyping, in fact, when the emergency notice came across the screen to shelter in place.

Since then, we’ve Skyped and texted almost daily. She is much younger than I am and lives in an area where she can leave her home and go for daily hikes and quick shopping trips. She knows how sequestered I am, and checks in daily to make sure I’m still firing on all cylinders.

Yesterday, when I emerged from the shower, I had an urgent text to call her ASAP. My heart was in my mouth, thinking she was going to tell me she was ill. But instead, she asked if I was busy at 3 pm. Yes, busy waiting for 4 pm, I told her. Like, when am I not available these days?

Good, she said, I have a surprise for you. Angela had arranged for two musicians to come to my apartment building and serenade me for 20 minutes. They call themselves The Songmobile.

Floored? Oh my word. I counted the hours. At three o’clock, she texted me that she was outside. A few minutes later, The Songmobile arrived and set up their equipment on the curb outside my apartment building.

Floored? Oh my word. I counted the hours. At three o’clock, she texted me that she was outside. A few minutes later, The Songmobile arrived and set up their equipment on the curb outside my apartment building.

They did their sound tests and began singing and playing. Thu plays the guitar and Rachel sings the songs they write. The music had a bossa nova sound in places. At times they had to complete with the traffic on my busy street, but I heard the beautiful music and got to see my friend’s lovely face for the first time in weeks.

The joy of hearing Rachel call my name on the mike sent a thrill down to my toes as she looked up at me and began singing for the next twenty minutes. Angela and I looked at each other and grinned and clapped like giddy fools.

I’ve had amazing experiences with Angela, from seeing King penguins on the Falkland Islands to mountains of ice in Antarctica to hours upon hours of talking and laughing as though we’d been born to be friends.

She told me she thought of me in my long isolation when she heard of these singers and decided it would be a perfect gift for me.

Angela just lost her job and there’s a freeze on new contracts. So for her to break into her savings for this extravagance meant the world to me, as you can see from the smile on my face.

So what’s the silver lining in this terrible pandemic? There’s no sugar coating the more than million people world-wide who’ve become ill, the horrendous number who have died.

If there are any wins, they are individual gifts. It’s up to each of us to see the silver lining in the pandemic. For me, it’s the generosity of my neighbors who have made sure I can be isolated and safe, yet want for nothing. For the big hearts of my two upstairs neighbors who chose not to hold a grudge because I complained about their noise. There are other people who would have reacted differently. In these times, they can make all the noise they want, as long as they get through the isolation safely and healthy.

For those of us who preach gratitude as a core principle for happiness, this is a time to put our money where our mouth is. And if we don’t have a job and are out of money, well, then we put action to our words.

Whether we’re grateful that we don’t have the virus, that our loved ones have survived a bout of it, or we give thanks for the health care providers that pull us through, we must look for something bright to help us get through this difficult time.

For we are the survivors, and our job is to keep up our strength and spirit for those who have far greater losses. They will need our fortitude, our shoulders to lean on, our encouragement to cope and make a new life when all this is over, and their worlds are forever changed.

So I offer my bit of sunshine in the form of heroes who take care of me and brighten my life. Their value is worth more than I can say. I will remember my neighbors and every kindness they have shown to me for the rest of my life.

Angela is already deep in my heart as the dearest of friends, but her gift yesterday to break into my solitude with laughter and music goes above and beyond. But that’s why she’s my friend because she’s that special.

I hope you all are able to see a glimmer of silver as you face your days confronting this challenge. I wish you the best and most of all, I wish you to be safe and healthy.

I’d like to tag my friends Rasheed Hooda, Peggy Gillespie Hazelwood, and Mark Kolke to contribute to this challenge.

I’m an editor and writer on Medium with Top Writer status. I’m also an editor for the publication, Rogues Gallery. I’ve published 55 titles on Amazon and edit for private clients. If you’d like to hire me as your editor for fiction, non-fiction, or business writing, please contact me here. If you’d like to read more of my work on Medium, click here to sign up for my newsletter. I’ll make sure you don’t miss a word. Thank you for reading.