We are living in some trying times and as the world grapples with being put under quarantine, everyone’s lives have been turned upside down, both personally and professionally.
Image via Beauty Banks / Instagram
But it is during these times of crisis, we see everyday heroes rise to the surface, with acts of kindness that make these dark days a little more hopeful. Here are their heartwarming stories which will restore your faith in humanity.
Happy Birthday Grandma
A New York family posted a heartwarming video on Instagram showing how they wouldn’t let coronavirus get in the way of celebrating their grandmother’s 95th birthday. Sara Byrne wrote on Instagram, “We had to keep our distance but we couldn’t see our best girl on her birthday!!!”
Image via Sara Byrne / Instagram
The video shows the entire family assembling on Grandma Byrne’s front lawn, keeping a safe distance while singing happy birthday and holding up balloons and signs. In the video, you can hear the 95-year-old saying, “Oh, I love it! Thank you!” This family is certainly still together in spirit.
Get Well Soon
Sometimes, when you are sick in the hospital, or alone at home, a gesture of goodwill can do wonders to keep your spirits up. Students at St. Anthony’s Home and School in Columbus, Nebraska, knew this all too well and decided to make get well soon cards for people in hospital and quarantine.
Image via Nebraska Medicine / Facebook
The fourth, fifth, and sixth graders made the cards, which their teacher, Charlotte Beran, sent to the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The hospital distributed the cards to their patients and posted on Facebook about how much it boosted morale.
Party Plans
When Jordana Shmidman’s birthday celebration had to be cancelled due to the pandemic but the family didn’t want all the food they had prepared to go to waste. They decided to give the delicious feast away to families at home in quarantine.
Image via sarhighschool / Instagram
The caterers packaged the food up, and volunteers organized delivery across the whole of New York. About 150 boxes of food were delivered to people in quarantine, across places such as Bergen County, the Bronx, Westchester, Manhattan, Queens and Rockland County.
Neighbours And Friends
Dakota Brown, from Chicago, Il., posted a heartwarming note of support for his neighbours on the front door of his apartment building. The note read, “Howdy neighbour. I’m Dakota. I live up in [apartment]. In the current state of things, it is important that those of us who can help, do.”
Image via Tyra Martin / Facebook
Brown then went on to offer to run errands and provide support for his vulnerable or elderly neighbours. “I think it’s important that at least those of us on the same block, for now, can rely on each other,” he said.
Round of Applause
Across different countries, people have not let quarantine stop them from showing appreciation for those still out in the field working flat out to try and defeat the respiratory illness.
Image via vaibhavs_adventures / Instagram
People in Spain, Italy, the UK and other countries organized a round of applause from their balconies and rooftops, to show their gratitude for healthcare workers. The sounds of cheering, singing and clapping filled the streets, despite no one being outside, is an incredibly moving display of solidarity across the world.
A Slice of Goodness
A pizzeria manager in Prescott, Arizona, was moved to tears by one encounter with a customer. One morning, a woman walked into his shop, handed him an envelope, and walked straight out. Skyler Reeves, the owner of Rosa’s Pizzeria, was stunned when he opened it and found a note – and $2,000 in cash.
Image via Rosa’s Pizzeria, Skyler Reeves / Facebook
The note read, “Hi there, as a neighbour and lover of Rosa’s, please accept the enclosed and use it as you see fit for your staff.” Reeves was overcome with emotion and used the money to pay his employee’s essential bills.
Mile-High Graduation
When students from Briercrest College and Seminary in Caronport, Saskatchewan, Canada had their graduation ceremony cancelled, many of them flew home with heavy hearts. But four seniors on the volleyball team, on their way back from the CCAA Women’s Volleyball National Championships, were in for a touching surprise.
Image via Nancy Watt Garner / Facebook
Canadian airline WestJet threw the students a mini-graduation ceremony on board, as they flew home from the championships. “I was just happy because everybody was panicking, this is just finally something nice that somebody did,” Nancy Garner, one of the students’ mothers, told Insider.
Window Well-Wishers
Though we are all stuck inside our homes, this didn’t stop a group of neighbours in Spain coming together to honour an elderly lady on her 80th birthday. The Good News Movement shared on Instagram a video of the residents.
Image via Imgur
They were all singing happy birthday and dropping off a cake complete with birthday candle at her door. The heartwarming video shows the lady crying with happiness at the beautiful gesture, and the original post has already been viewed over half a million times.
Scientific Saviors
In Italy, where many hospitals are suffering from shortages of essential equipment, a team of engineers clubbed together to create life-saving respirator valves using 3D-printing technology.
Image via Massimo Temporelli / Facebook
Michele Faini, the 3D print expert at Lonati SpA, teamed up with Massimo Temporelli of digital manufacturing lab FabLab and Cristian Fracassi, engineering CEO of Isinnova., to print 100 valves to distribute for free in the hospital. They then brought the printer to the hospital so that they could continue printing the life-saving devices themselves.
Jennifer Le
When Fashion designer Jennifer Le saw long queues outside pharmacies in her home country of Singapore, she realized that there was a shortage of face masks. She ordered a big batch of masks from Vietnam and has been handing them out herself to members of the public.
Screenshot from “Showing Kindness Amid Coronavirus Outbreak” / Youtube
Le spoke about it in a video on the Our Grandfather Story YouTube channel. “I know a lot of people only care about themselves,” she said. “Of course, you must take care of yourself first. After you have enough, then you can help other people.”
True Love
This elderly couple wasn’t going to let coronavirus stop them from celebrating their 67th wedding anniversary. 90-year-old Bob Shellard came and stood outside the window of his wife Nancy, 88, at her nursing home.
Image via Laura Mikolajczak / Facebook
He held up a cluster of balloons and a heartfelt sign, which read, “I’ve loved you 67 years and still do. Happy Anniversary.” “You still have to live your life, and you’ve got to continue,” said Laura Mikolajczak, the couple’s daughter. “Even with all of this uncertainty and fear going on with the coronavirus, it’s important to continue to express your love and continue the tradition.”
Sweet Serenade
Residents of an old age home in Louisville, Kentucky, were moved to tears by a surprise musical guest at their facility. Music teacher and violinist Matthew Lane, who also owns a violin shop, turned up outside the nursing home.
Illustration. Image by Pexels from Pixabay
He played a beautiful violin solo, for the isolated elderly residents to hear from the safety of their rooms. “Someone can open a window and listen to us play a song,” Lane said to WDRB. “And that connection is important, especially for people who can’t leave and can’t get out.”
Happy Purim
During the Jewish holiday of Purim, representatives of New York’s Jewish organization Chabad of Westchester visited the homes of those in quarantine to read them the story of the Megillah, which is traditionally read aloud in synagogues on Purim.
Image via Imgur
Gary Berger, of New Rochelle, N.J., said to Business Insider that the reps visited over 100 homes. They read the Megillah outside people’s houses, standing in their yards and porches so that as many people as possible could hear at a safe distance.
Kevin Love
After Utah Jazz centre Rudy Gobert tested positive for coronavirus, the NBA suspended its season from March 11 onwards. This obviously will impact the arena’s hourly employees, which is what drove Cleveland Cavaliers player Kevin Love to make a beautiful gesture.
Image via kevinlove / Instagram
Love announced on his Instagram page that he is donating $100,000 from his foundation, the Kevin Love Fund, to the members of staff who have lost their income. He wrote in his statement, “I hope that during this time of crisis, others will join me in supporting our communities.”
Food Festival
During the coronavirus pandemic, it’s easy to forget that there are other things going on in the world where people still need our help. That’s why the organizers of the 2020 Arnold Sports Festival, after it was cancelled due to coronavirus, sent all the food they had prepared for it to Nashville, Tennessee.
Image by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Nashville District / Flickr
Nashville had just been struck by a tornado, and 200,000 people’s worth of food went to victims of the disaster, and the first responders on the scene. This is the perfect example of how you turn lemons into lemonade!
Teacher Tips
A third-grade teacher in Hallsville, Missouri, went viral after sharing on Facebook her strategy to try and encourage students to wash their hands properly. Shauna Woods used her classroom book stamp to mark every student’s hand.
Image via Mrs Woods 3rd Grade / Facebook
Whoever had washed their hands enough for the stamp to disappear by the end of the day, got a prize. The post has now been shared over 81,000 times. Woods said to the Business Insider that her goal was simply “to share a fun idea with local teachers.”
A True Diamond
The Diamond Princess cruise ship saw over 700 passengers infected and stuck in quarantine for weeks. Captain Gennaro Arma was an amazing force of positivity for all the passengers, keeping them informed with updates, and putting a smile on their faces with his sense of humour.
Image via Princess Cruises / Facebook
One passenger, Aun Na Tan, wrote on Instagram, “Captain Arma was courageous, sympathetic and carried himself with dignity and optimism for what was an unprecedented and unique situation.” After the ship had docked in Yokohama, Japan, Arma waited two weeks until all his passengers had disembarked, being the last one to leave the ship.
True Beauty
UK charity Beauty Banks was set up to supply toiletries to people who can’t afford them, and they launched a special appeal for those affected by a coronavirus. So far, they have raised over £60,000 to provide people with soap, hand sanitizer, washing powder and other essential items.
Image via Beauty Banks / Instagram
Co-founder Sali Hughes said to the BBC, “Because we’re an existing charity we work with suppliers already. We think we can get our hands on, certainly for the first drop, a lot of hand sanitizers for people who really, really need it.”
Free Press
Many online publishers and news outlets have also announced that they will be lifting their paywalls to ensure that everyone has access to free news and updates during the coronavirus pandemic.
Image by Karolina Grabowska from Pixabay
“This is a public health emergency.” Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, said to Adweek. “If we have information that’s important for people to read, I’m not sure how ethical it would be to keep that from them if they didn’t give me their credit card… We didn’t go into journalism to sell subscriptions. We went in, with any luck, to inform and enlighten the public. And help people.”
Respect Your Elders
In a small town near Manchester, the U.K., a woman called Rachel Pleasant has set up a scheme to help provide the elderly and vulnerable with essential items and any errands they need doing.
Image via Rachel Pleasant / Facebook
She set up a Facebook page for the idea, and within days over 2,000 people had joined. “It’s been amazing,” Pleasant said to the BBC. “I think we just felt panic never solves anything, let’s focus some of that energy on really helping the people in our community.”
Big News
With schools and universities shut down across the country, it can be hard for teachers to communicate with their students. But Michelle Floering didn’t let that stop her from delivering some very good news to one of her best students – in person.
Image via Michelle Floering / Facebook
Floering knew that Kaitlyn Watson worked at a restaurant drive-thru, so off she went to make her announcement – and filmed the whole thing. “I want to announce something to you today,” Floering said in the video. “You are GTA’s 2020 class valedictorian!” Watson was visibly thrilled. “I am? Oh my gosh! Thank you so much.”
Do It For Darrell
88-year-old British man Darrell Blackley passed away in hospital after testing positive for coronavirus. In his honour, his family have asked people to perform acts of kindness instead of sending flowers.
Image via St Michael’s Church Tonge Cum Alkrington / Facebook
A spokesman for the family wrote on their Facebook post, “We invite you to forget flowers and cards… Instead, we would like you to give acts of kindness. Help someone who is lonely or struggling during this time, who needs shopping, childcare or a chat… Post tiny acts of kindness given and received and share. Build something beautiful in Darrell’s memory.”