Hamilton Spectator readers share their moment of joy from 2020
To mark the end of the year-who-must-not-be-named, we asked for your moments of joy.
Here's a look at what brought Hamiltonians happiness in 2020.
Dr. Monolina Bhattacharyya-Ray
Some good news pieces for our family.
1. In mid-April soon after the pandemic broke out, my husband, Professor Sourav Ray, Area Chair of Marketing, McMaster University, received the good news that he has been offered the endowed position: Marketing & Michael Lee-Chin and Family Professor in Strategic Business.
2. My daughter, Sumedha Ray, graduated from Grade 8 at Chedoke Elementary School with the highest tally of awards in her class of 2020, seven in all, including the Principal's Academic Award for Outstanding Achievement, Chedoke Technology Award, French Award, Music Award, Physical Education Award, History Award, Language Award.
3. My daughter and I wrote a piece along with a work of art that we did together during the pandemic, and our work was published in an anthology titled In the Midst: A COVID-19 Anthology," edited by Sandy Tritt, published in Nov. 2020.
Yes, there has been personal loss and anxiety during this horrendous year, but these are significant good news for us and our families that have put a big smile on our face and are reason to celebrate when we can. We feel blessed.
Rachael Marshall
This year, my husband Simon Marshall and I welcomed our baby girl, Blake, into the world on Sept. 4. She was in the hospital for eight days with low blood sugar and the staff at St. Joe's hospital did an amazing job caring for her and giving us first time parents some pro tips!
Ashley Chapple
2020 has been an amazing year for our household. In Feb. 2020, we welcomed a daughter to our family. In Aug. 2020, we got married. And in Nov. 2020, we found out we will be welcoming our final baby in Aug. 2021.
Robin Burnett
My beautiful granddaughter Aubrey was born on Leap Day! So exciting for us. She has brought joy to us all year!
Christine Schiedel
My uplifting moment of 2020 was committing to a goal of running 2020 km for the year! I completed this goal as well as running my first 50 km Ultra Trail run. When most sports were cancelled, running and enjoying the beauty of the outdoors while running was not cancelled! I loved every minute of every 2020 km. There is something to be said about being outside and feeling the fresh crisp air on your face!
Marc Kirouac
I don't know if it was the lack of planes flying, global industrial production dramatically reduced, or just being in isolation for all those weeks, but looking up in 2020 offered the most incredible cloud displays I've seen in a long time (and they looked awesome in photos). That's what I will remember about 2020.
Cathy Cuneo
Our family received two blessings during the pandemic this year! My mother suffered a stroke during the first lockdown, but we are so beyond thankful for the tremendous care she received at the Hamilton General Hospital under the care of Dr. Jim Sahlas. Thankfully she recovered well and we are so grateful for that amazing team of front-line workers!
The second blessing came July 6 - my second precious daughter was born, happy and healthy! So blessed to have had great care from Mountain Midwifery Care, another great group of essential workers.
Danielle Coffer
I am one of the Hospitality Services teachers at Bernie Custis and in our inaugural year, we were providing the cafeteria service to our students and staff. My extracurricular contribution for the last 7+ years has been to co-ordinate the breakfast programs. As indicated in The Spec's CODE RED series, our student population was deemed to be one of the lowest socio-demographics in the province of Ontario. To say we do our part to help encourage our students to come to school is an understatement.
When the schools were abruptly closed last March, we had received an order earlier that week of the supplies we would be needing for our return after March break. Muffins and loaves for our breakfast program had been prepared as well as many cookies, squares and such for our cafeteria service and were safely stored in our deep freezer. Once it became apparent that we would not be returning any time soon, I loaded my truck and took any non-perishables that I could to Hamilton Food Share in May. When schools officially closed for the year, I reached out to Ronald McDonald House, Interval House, Good Shepherd & Neighbour to Neighbour to see if they could accept our perishable items - fortunately they were able to and my colleague and I came in at the end of June and boxed everything up for each organization. Knowing our students and the food security issues that are in some of their homes, we knew this food would find a way to them somehow.
I was also able to apply for a grant to provide gift cards to our students through the Hamilton Foundation for Student Success and we were able to send these cards to our most vulnerable families.
Fast forward to the new school year and we have modified our nutrition program to ensure that each day there is a variety of grab and go snacks that our students can take with them. If a student is in crisis, we are able to provide a few days worth of food until emergency measures can be put in place for them. Prior to the holidays, as a staff we collected over $5,000 to again purchase gift cards to pass out to our families - in years past, we have been able to provide hampers so this year we had to come up with a plan that met COVID protocols and could still support our students.
In these new days of living, the saying "it takes a village" has never been more apparent.
Rachel and Drew
Our uplifting moment from 2020 was getting married this past October. We downsized our wedding to a small celebration of 25 people. With some of the money we saved, we were able to buy our first house a few weeks later.
Michelle Perron
We got a puppy, Kobe the beagle, and he is the light of our lives in this pandemic. He has also brought lots of joy and laughs to many of our family and our friends as I post many times a day on my Instagram story to share the good times he brings to our daily lives. He has been a true blessing and the perfect time to get a puppy ... although not the cheapest!
Amy Chong
2019 was a rough year for my family as my father was diagnosed with lung cancer in May and passed in July, two weeks before my 30th birthday. I had been a single, independent woman since 2012, but shortly before my dad's diagnosis I had dabbled in dating apps and for years I had tried reconnecting with old high school crushes and being set up with friends of friends to no avail. 2020 was going to be my year, maybe I would actually find someone suitable to settle down with, as my dad would have especially wanted. Then the pandemic took the world in full force. Fast forward to September, an old summer camp crush reached out to me on social media and we instantly clicked, it was of those ah-ha! moments that I was beginning to think only happened in movies. He was my camp boyfriend" for about two weeks back in 2003. We began dating about two weeks after we reconnected. He also told me a few weeks in to our relationship that he had kept a letter I had written to him all those years ago in his wallet for about 14 years after we first met, and only took it out of his wallet about three years ago. I will fully admit that this story is grossly cute and makes me nauseated (in a good way), but I've never felt happier or more shocked that I met my match - it just happened to take about 17 years after we first met!
Jim Natis
A few things that have brought me joy in 2020 are all the front-line workers. I believe they are concerned with keeping us safe and many working behind the scenes, often very thankless jobs. Our community volunteers and churches making sure the ones in need are fed and helping people who are struggling with so many difficult issues.
All these workers have answered the call of duty, putting themselves at risk each and every day to help others. Thinking about how they are sacrificing their own needs, some health-care staff have to stay in hotels away from their own families to help others. Their commitment to our most vulnerable brings warmth to my heart and fills me with joy knowing they are there doing this incredible hard work and with a smile on their faces (under their masks). Our students and teachers, how can you not feel joy seeing these elementary and high school students wearing masks all day and doing their best to socially distance. Our teachers who have bent over backwards to keep our students safe! They are working diligently every day to provide safe learning and giving our young ones a sense of normal in these abnormal days. And even with a mask on, you can see the smile in their eyes as they teach in very hard conditions. They deserve our praise and gratitude.
Our retail, service, and automotive workers, from hair salons to grocery stores to coffee shops to fast food to public transit to vehicle repair shops. These workers young and older come to work every day to serve us and they all say these very powerful words to us hello how are today, how may I help you," having another person acknowledging our existence, checking in on us for those few seconds, providing us with our cup of coffee or take out food or groceries or a haircut or keeping us moving around. The kind words and outstanding service they give every single day in these isolating times brings me great joy, for that moment I feel as if life is back to normal. Our fellow citizens, who wear a mask in public spaces and move out of the way to keep social distance and use their manners when doing it. The ones who have kept an eye on our neighbours who are alone or organized drive by and social distanced celebrations. How one cannot feel joy knowing a stranger is concerned for our well-being or making sure important life moments are not forgotten. All the people who have put up Christmas lights outside, all that hard work so all of us can have some beauty in this great city. This year it has meant more than ever to have these beautiful displays of lights. They have given us something to smile about when everything else seemed so bleak and dark. How can you not feel joy seeing all that beauty. Our journalists bring joy. Even with all the bad news in 2020 they make sure we are in the know and hold people to account who need to be held to account. They even remind us to look for joy in a year I think all would like to forget.
Christy Hawley
We welcomed baby George in April! He's now almost 9 months old and learning to crawl.
Santa Claus
Bringing smiles to children as Virtual Santa from the North Pole
Anne and Dave Marsden
As pro bono community advocates, a lot of our time is spent dealing with unpleasant (to say the least) situations. Having an hour of alone time with a photographer in the RBG (Heidi Hartmann) fully accessible festival of lights area, in Dec. 2020, was truly a joyous time for us. Through the photos we have we can create that joy any time we want to, forever.
Tahirah Seta
My sister and I both met our partners and got married during the pandemic! Although the weddings were far from the ideals we had planned, both ceremonies were beautiful and the DIY-esque nature of them made them all the more perfect.
Cameron Caton
Just thought to share a little good news and how far Covid-Elvis has come in the last 9 months. During the pandemic we managed to generate 30,000 pounds of non-perishable food donations and with it have donated these to 30 different food banks and other organizations. To date we've filled 50 cinch bags with many items in each specific to women and donated these to two different women's shelters. We put together hundreds of pounds of food and helped feed those in encampments. We bought 50 duffel bags filling each with 80+ items (basic survival) for those out on the streets living in tents in the colder weather. We have donated thousands in feminine hygiene products to various community centres. Donated hundreds of pounds of food to two different Hamilton high schools for their student food share programs. We recently put together 30 Chritmas Turkey Dinner Hampers for 30 families, wrapped 200 gifts and delivered these to 30 families on Dec. 21 that they may be offered the opportunity to have Christmas for their families.
Reach The Spectator newsroom at 905-526-3420 or news@thespec.com