BARRIE, ONT. The year 2020 will go down in history as the year of a global pandemic that changed the way we live our everyday lives. Simple gestures like shaking hands were replaced with social distancing, residents of long-term care homes were isolated from their families, and businesses of all types were forced to close to the public. It s been a year that the average person could never have predicted with a highly contagious illness we all came to know as COVID-19. Still, 2020 wasn t all plague and pestilence. The dark shadow COVID-19 produced allowed us to see how resilient we can be.
INNISFIL, ONT. A server in Innisfil, Ont., calls a recent act of kindness a Christmas miracle. Jessica Reichel served a couple she says she had never seen before at the St. Louis Bar and Grill and was shocked to find they had left her a $1,000 tip. The 21-year-old says she s still trying to process the shock. As she waited on the duo, she said they chatted about the pandemic, saying they asked how work had been going. After their hour-long stay, Reichel handed them the bill for $82.86. She says she never expected what would happen after they left. And then I look at the slip, and that s when I see what they did for me, she said. And then in that moment I kind of blacked out if I m being completely honest, because I ve never seen anything like that.