Moment by Moment

Moment by Moment

Life has been upended by the coronavirus, but people from all corners of our community are helping one another move forward. In this occasional series, we will share how some are enduring and even thriving.

Kids put on porch concert for neighbor self-quarantining during coronavirus pandemic

In what are uncertain times right now, with coronavirus keeping people isolated at home, there is good to be had if we look for it. And two young children in Clintonville took good into their own hands Monday, holding an impromptu cello concert at the home of a dear 78-year-old neighbor. She was delighted.

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Daily schedule maintains family sanity

The Zimmerman family, like thousands of others in our community, are trying to figure out life working from home while home-schooling children and worrying about elderly parents. They created a household schedule that runs from the second their children open their eyes to the time they go to sleep.

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Stuck at home because of coronavirus precautions? This Columbus teacher will read you a story

East Side resident Izetta Thomas, a Columbus City Schools teacher, has been reading books aloud on Facebook Live three times daily since Monday to fill her days and help others stuck home because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Amid coronavirus restrictions, senior-living resident still seeks to bring joy to others

The coronavirus crisis has brought anxiety and fear to senior-living communities. But there also is love, as demonstrated by Gayle Channing Tenenbaum from her her home at Ohio Living Westminster-Thurber.

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Local writer conducts virtual tour of Columbus Museum of Art during coronavirus closure

Scott Woods says that during this time of social distancing, people are fighting both a physical virus and an emotional virus: that of isolation and being cut off from many activities we enjoy.

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Prom dress charity may not operate this spring

The Fairy Goodmothers organization has provided thousands of high schools with free prom dresses for 15 years. But this year the impact from the coronavirus could send the dresses back into storage instead of high school proms.

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Married during coronavirus: ‘What was important was that we become husband and wife’

They chose March 21 because it would be easy to remember: 3-2-1. Kate Merryman and her fiance, Bryan Richter, wanted a wedding date outside peak season — it would be more budget-friendly — and they booked their venue, Everal Barn in Westerville, shortly after the engagement.

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Columbus cleaning company works to be part of coronavirus solution

CleanTurn, a local cleaning company, has stepped up its disinfecting protocol and hopes to be part of the solution to the coronavirus.

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Worthington college student’s Semester at Sea round-the-world voyage becomes 2 weeks floating in Indian Ocean

Mike Weirick, 20, of Worthington, a junior at the University of Tampa, was one of 550 American college students on a ship that was supposed to enjoy a Semester at Sea. But the worldwide outbreak of the coronavirus prevented them from docking in countries like China and India and left them cruising in the Indian Ocean for weeks.

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Musician couple now without gigs provides home-baked treats to hospital workers

With their livelihood on hold because of the coronavirus closing venues, the duo behind the band Honey and Blue are delivering homemade baked goods to health care workers.

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Ohio poll worker was ready to help at primary election despite coronavirus concerns

For more than two decades, Laurel Helber has served as a poll worker at every local election in Franklin County. And for nearly that long, she has tucked away the little money she was paid for doing so and passed it along to someone else when she heard of a need. She wasn’t about to let fear of coronavirus stop her this year.

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Coronavirus means even more isolation for Ohio woman in sanctuary

To the 41 people across the United States living in sanctuary in churches, social isolation and stay-at-home orders are nothing new. Edith Espinal, who has been living in a Clintonville church for more than two years, hopes that lawmakers realize her plight after experiencing it personally.

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‘Drive-up’ closings bring social distancing to homebuying experience

Innovations like “drive up” closings allow real estate transactions to continue during a time of social distancing.

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With air hugs and high-fives, princess parades spread happiness from afar amid Ohio coronavirus concerns

Paulette’s Princess Parties is hosting social-distancing street parades to bring joy to Columbus neighborhoods. Volunteers dressed as superheroes and princesses walk through the street, keeping their distance, and invite kids to dance, sing and exercise with them on their porches and front lawns.

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Pandemic derailed The Cheesecake Girl’s grand opening, then community stepped up

Samantha Strange was planning to open her bakery in Old Hilliard right as the global pandemic hit. With consistent orders keeping her afloat, she continues to operate out of a rental kitchen in Upper Arlington.

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Veterans assure Americans that life will go on despite coronavirus

Two veterans, one from World War II and the Vietnam War, have survived worse than the threat of coronavirus. They worry more about the division in our country than the disease itself as they try to cope with life on lockdown in the Ohio Veterans Home in Sandusky.

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Ohio’s Uber, Lyft drivers hard-hit by coronavirus

Like many other Uber drivers, Jay Smith struggles to make ends meet since fewer passengers are requesting rides amid the stay-at-home-orders related to the coronavirus pandemic.

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Parking-lot concert a bright spot for seniors quarantined because of coronavirus

Locked down in their rooms for weeks because of the coronavirus pandemic, residents of a Gahanna senior living center enjoyed live music on Wednesday.

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Couple who lost jobs find comfort in shared experience

Steve and Pam Calhoun both lost their jobs due to the coronavirus. The Bexley couple are now navigating being unemployed and social distancing.

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Columbus emergency pharmacist working in NYC moved by nightly public appreciation

An emergency department pharmacist from the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center has been working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic in New York City since late March.

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Columbus woman posts videos of her singing to help people wash hands

Meredith Casto has been recording herself singing a capella for 20 to 30 seconds while washing her hands and posting the video to Facebook and Instagram.

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Hot Chicken Takeover founder: Closing for coronavirus was a ‘crazy difficult’ decision

Joe DeLoss founded Hot Chicken Takeover in 2014 to help people recently released from prison, recovering from drug or alcohol addiction or facing other barriers to employment. So it was with a heavy heart that he temporarily closed his restaurants to protect those very same employees from becoming sick during the coronavirus pandemic.

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Cam Atkinson playing role of husband and dad more than hockey player during coronavirus pandemic

Since welcoming newborn son Caden amid the coronavirus pandemic, Blue Jackets forward Cam Atkinson has been focused on keeping his older son, 21-month-old Declan, occupied in their Upper Arlington home.

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Graduating Ohio State international student frets about job, expiring visa amid coronavirus pandemic

International students face special challenges in light of the spread of the new coronavirus. Abhigyaan Bararia, a graduating Ohio State University senior from India, fears that he will be unable to secure a job in the U.S. before his visa program expires.

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Peace Corps volunteer says tearful goodbyes before being rushed home

When the Peace Corps recently suspended all operations because of coronavirus, more than 7,000 volunteers, including Rose LeVally of Grove City, packed their bags.

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Nationwide Arena’s ice man works alone during coronavirus closure

Nationwide Arena could have been roaring with playoff hockey, but instead, when Ian Huffman walks in, he is greeted by darkness and silence. Huffman, the arena’s ice technician, removed the ice weeks ago but remains hopeful, like many other Columbus Blue Jackets fans, that the ice and the sport they love will return this season.

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Hilltop coffee shop that brought people together now must keep them apart

When Third Way Cafe opened in December 2017, it was envisioned as “a hub for the Hilltop.” For now, the coffee shop is only open to carryout service but customers look forward to being able to congregate there again soon after restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic are lifted.

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Thousands of worried Ohioans keep coronavirus call center busy

The phone lines were jammed full of callers waiting for help, but Belinda Kerr sensed she needed to spend extra time with one woman recently.

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Ohio State nearly deserted during coronavirus pandemic

Ohio State University, one of the nation’s largest universities, is empty during what would normally be a busy end of the semester.

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97-year-old mom in nursing home gets special birthday message

Forced to abandon plans for a birthday party, Kathy McKnight surprised her mother with a sign outside her window. It also lifted the spirits of other residents.

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Bat mitzvah celebration shared over Zoom

Congregation Tifereth Israel celebrated their first bat mitzvah through a Zoom video conference on Saturday.

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Nonprofit providing meals to unemployed food service and hospitality workers during coronavirus crisis

These days, customers at The Table are servers, kitchen staff, hostesses, bartenders and other service workers currently out of a job. A Columbus collaboration gets them free meals.

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Coronavirus can’t stop 13-year-old’s birthday celebration

Delaware County mother, Stephanie Murphy, wasn’t about to let coronavirus keep her from throwing a celebration to remember for her soon-to-be turning 13-year-old daughter Bella.

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Young Worthington sisters’ sign business booms during stay-at-home order

Jordan and Jillian Cross, ages 12 and 9, go out every evening to take down and install yard signs. They once did 4 of 5 signs a month, now it’s 4 or 5 a night.

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Hardworking food cart vendor Lui adapts to world with coronavirus

Owner of an iconic Downtown food cart moves to German Village grocery store, where he continues to serve up sandwiches and stories.

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Celebration on hold for woman hoping to become US citizen

Kadie Kargbo, of Sierra Leone, passed her naturalization test in March and was excited to officially become a citizen on April 8. The ceremony, however, was rescheduled due to coronavirus closures and now she doesn’t know when she’ll be able to become a U.S. citizen. Thousands of others are in the same situation.

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Pregnant woman shows off baby bump to parents – from 6 feet away

A pregnant woman’s parents visit their daughter to see her growing baby bump, but they do it at a distance.

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Columbus man’s relief from coronavirus is poetry in motion down memory lane

Each day at 2 pm while listening to Governor DeWine deliver the latest depressing virus news Bob Weiler goes on a walk back through his old neighborhood. Along the way the 85-year-old takes pictures of old houses and landmarks, and then sends poetry clues to his brother and others who have to guess how they are connected to an old memory.

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