Goodbye 2020. Where’s your hat, what’s your hurry? – as my grandfather use to say.
It may be ironic that In a year in which many of us isolated to protect not only ourselves, but our loved ones and neighbors, we began to reach out for community, for a sense of belonging that we had taken for granted.
We found joy in a Fiesta car parade and a Christmas car parade that lifted our spirits. We sat in lawn chairs children and elders and in between, waving like we were watching the Macy’s Day parade. The Easter Bunny and the Easter Skunk (who became the Christmas Skunk) visited children in the neighborhood, standing on the sidewalk to greet their neighbors. We cheered one another on Facebook. We organized socially-distanced outdoor movie nights. We ordered food from our Beacon Hill restaurants and tried to help keep them going.
Even more importantly, we helped those neighbors in need. We signed up elderly neighbors for Meals-on- Wheels, we baked for each other, we donated books to our little library at the Community Garden, we gave food to neighbors, we provided resources. Lucy Eller and Lola Rodriguez (co-chairs of the Benevolent Committee) with the donations and help from neighbors, provided Thanksgiving turkey dinners to six families, then provided ham Christmas dinners and toys for the children to another six families for Christmas. We helped to locate lost pets and offered advice from everything from bread making to curing animal allergies.
We found our best, most resilient selves in countless and unnoticed acts of kindness throughout the year. We faced challenges together. We can continue to work together to bring joy and help to our community in the coming year. This is what a real neighborhood, in the best sense of the word, does.
Happy New Year Beacon Hill!
- Cynthia Speilman