strong ‹‹ HOPE & RESILIENCE
MARY JO BENNETT W CHARLES TOWN, JEFFERSON COUNTY A Day in the Life of an Isolated Senior Adventures in senior-only shopping.
well, i set the alarmclock for 4:30 a.m. in order to get to the grocery store in time for “senior-only shopping” from 6 to 7 a.m. Do these people not realize that we are seniors? Although some of us are early risers, it takes us hours to get ready to meet the public! When I arrived at 5:55,
JESSIE OWENS W BRIDGEPORT, HARRISON COUNTY All the Comforts of Home A Bridgeport interior designer looks forward to future projects. i aman interior designer living in beautiful bridgeport, west virginia . My husband and I have been completely transforming our 1960s brick colonial home. This is our second house to be totally transformed by us. We do all the work ourselves and have learned a lot over the years. We like to keep all the original charm and beauty in a home, curating spaces that work for our family while highlighting and restoring the original architecture of the home. This time at home over the past month has given us time we need to complete the entire inside. It has also given me time to start branching out of my own space and helping other families—helping others learn their own personal styles, designing and curating spaces that reflect them. Currently all consulting is being done via the internet, but I’m looking forward to going into unique homes all over West Virginia and restoring them to their original glory. I know how important it is to have a home that reflects the family inside of it, to have a home everyone wants to come back to. A home that is welcoming. West Virginia has such a rich history, and so do all the diverse homes inside of it. I’m eagerly anticipating cultivating them back to life.
there was a line of so-called seniors waiting to get in. I was very suspicious! Some folks looked like they had on gray wigs and, once the doors opened, a lot of them were moving way too fast to be seniors. Then I almost got run over by a few mobile shopping carts! I did see a few of my senior friends there. We gave the “high-five” sign and conducted short conversations from 10 feet apart. Of course this required a lot of yelling in order to be heard. I loaded up my shopping cart with the necessities that were available and headed for the check-out before the rest of the hoarding population was allowed in. Judging from the items in most of the carts, I’ve come to the conclusion that seniors have much more sensible priorities than the other age groups: wine, chocolate, ice cream, prune juice. This ordeal made me so darn tired that I went straight back to bed when I got home. When I awoke, I thought it might all have been a dream and had to check my refrigerator to see if the ice cream was truly there. I’m relaxing now and reading a book about anti-gravity now and I just can’t put it down!
JAMIE NULL W PRINCETON, MERCER COUNTY Over the Rainbow
The Mercer County CVB and Hammer and Stain create a cheerful rainbow hunt . looking for positive energy during the shelter-in-place order, the Mercer County Convention and Visitors Bureau and Hammer and Stain, a local DIY craft workshop, partnered to turn Mercer County into a rainbow of hope. Together, they made 125 rainbow kits available for free, created a social media event, and used the local media to encourage residents and business owners to paint, draw, or place paper rainbows in windows, front doors, and more. On Easter weekend, residents of Mercer County enjoyed a “rainbow hunt” while practicing social distancing. The goal was to encourage positivity and hope while providing children and adults a way to express their art, count rainbows while driving or walking, and come together as a county.
Hundreds of residents and businesses participated in the hunt. Rainbows can be found throughout the county— in neighborhoods, the Grassroots District in Princeton, Princeton Community Hospital, Princeton Rescue Squad, and other places. The CVB and Hammer and Stain have encouraged residents and business owners to leave the rainbows up until the shelter-in-place is lifted for West Virginia. The hunt follows a national trend to provide hope during COVID by placing rainbows, hearts and teddy bears in windows of homes and business.
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