To the Editor:

I hope this month’s newsletter finds you well and hanging in there. We Mainer’s are well known for our independent spirit and now’s the time to bring it out. For those of you who don’t know me personally, I am surrounded by First Responders – my husband is a police officer, as is my son, and two of my daughter-in-laws are nurses, so they all function on calm while the rest of us feel like tearing our hair out. We’ve all been working hard to make this a special time for the kids and keep them safe.

They’re doing weekly hikes, walks in the woods, staying with Gram and Grampa more and baking “all on their own” for the first time. We’ve started seedlings, fed the birds (although we need to stop before we get visits from bear), and just “chilled” with popcorn and a movie. Although they miss school and their friends, they will always be able to look back on this time and remember without fear.

My hope is that all of you are trying to find some good amongst the bad and are looking forward to better days. Families have been drawn closer in so many ways! A friend shared with me stories she remembered hearing about the Spanish influenza, where children were left orphaned by the deaths of parents in the space of a week.

I shudder to think how much worse this could have been if we hadn’t stayed home when possible. My heart hurts for the loss of so many of our elderly. But time will pass, cures will be found and life will go on. Our children will go down in history as being the children who missed having a prom or a graduation service.

What will your legacy from this pandemic be? Downsizing to a more affordable home, making sure you are food safe, becoming more self-sustaining, setting aside a little more money for emergencies, resolving family differences? We each have an opportunity to come out of this stronger and better. That is my hope for all of you today.

Stay strong- stay healthy!

Jeannie Federico
Paris

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