“Everybody wants it to be gone,” Poliquin said. “Everybody wants to forget about it.”
True. And yet, while nearly everyone feels sadness at what’s been lost, especially the death of more than 330,000 Americans from COVID-19 since March, some also look back on these strange, lonely months and see glimmers of something valuable, even comforting.
“A warm aura of strength continued to preside” even during this “year of turbulence,” said Fowsia Musse, executive director of Maine Community Integration.
A plywood present sits Wednesday on the front lawn at Hunter Sweet’s home in Auburn. The local physician made the gift as a way to offer hope to his community. “We always decorate for the holidays, but I wanted to do something more symbolic this year,” Sweet said. “…We get to decide what is in the present. We get to put whatever inside the box that we want to.”