I agree. From health care workers to teachers to every single person who is out there trying to make a living under less than stellar conditions. Striking out at airline workers and grocery store employees for trying to follow rules that are in place to help us all. I wish those who are tired and frustrated would take a deep breath and walk in the shoes of the ones they are disparaging.

Thank you tina for starting this thread

Having spent 3 nights in the hospital recently for a non-C emergency I am humbled at the kindness and dedication of the people who took care of me. The 911 responders, the ER doctors and nurses and the nursing staff once I was admitted. We live in a remote community - we have mask mandates and people follow them. Lots of stores have signs "Be Kind" on their doors to remind people that we're all in this together.

Thank you Tina. Very nice.

Dd is a teacher. Dh works with the public. The health risks of these lines of work due to the virus are enormous.

Just like in all crises, some people have come through and shown their mettle. Others have of course, shown otherwise but many more have persevered and shown resilience. I hope they can get a break from the need for that resilience soon.

Don't forget the delivery drivers. The huge upswing in online shopping meant many were dealing with Christmas volumes all year long.

Tina, thank you. It has been a tough 2 years for us in the hospital. While I work in a generally happy area (Labor and Delivery) we have had our share of very sick moms who had to make hard decisions about delivering their baby at extremely early gestations. While young children weren't effected at the beginning, the Peds unit has been full of sick children and transferred ones out to the children's hospital an hour away.

LIke everyone else, I am ready for this to be over!

((RNmom)) and other heroes: thank you from the bottom of my heart. I hope you always know how appreciated you are.

Tina, thank you for starting this.

I tip waitstaff VERY well and I go overboard with kindness on grocery store employees. I appreciate them actually working. They don't get paid enough.

Thank you Tina! My DD is a teacher. She teaches in a 4 classroom pod, teachers desk in a group, one of her pod teachers just tested positive, the other three take his kids, no subs available, doing assesment of kids she hasn’t taught, kids in and out due to positive tests or quarantine, and kids vomiting all over the building. Her eight year old daughter and other classmates were ”trapped” in restroom after another student had vomited in the doorway, waiting for janitor to clean up. Just a routine day for her! She also has an underlying health condition.

She was sick a few days ago, not covid, couldn’t even think of taking a sick day due to lack of subs.

Several of her co-workers refuse to vaccine.

No offense taken, Tina. We admittedly hear these things so often it can be easy to gloss over the long list of people/occupations who have made it possible to keep going. I often go about life in my own little fog and am grateful that you brought up the thread to help me pay attention to all those people I interact with who make my little world go round.

yes! Thank you to all who work so hard. And thank you to all who respect the health of others and continue to social distance and mask up.

True story. Our daughter is teaching 1st grade this year. She trys to be sure all her students keep their masks on properly. She has one child (class of 18) out with Covid. Another teacher, same building, 2nd grade thinks masks are not necessary. Her class of 18 has eight out with Covid, one hospitalized.

Masks are not mandatory in schools, many our daughter’s students have parents in medical professions and send their kids to school with masks and lots of spares to share with others.

@Jilly you are so right! There are many HEROES out there!!

@maddielee well that should show the other teacher something! I'm also thankful that the masks help against flu. How kind of the parents to send masks to the other children.

I too am beyond thankful for our essential workers, and in particular have witnessed the dedication and service of those in the medical field, as I have elderly loved ones dealing with some issues. That they remain incredibly kind, compassionate and positive in the face of untold challenges truly speaks to their character. We would be at such a loss without those folks to help us.

Support them with continuing policies that protect their physical and mental well being! One should not have to destroy their health and psyche to serve their community, in a whole series of professions. There has been a crisis in farming going on for decades now as folks, even if they love farming, just can't take the uncertainty and stress anymore. This is starting to be reflected at the grocery store. I just read stats that PA is now graduating out half as many teachers as they did in 2016, the year that the numbers went into a dramatic and lasting downturn, which started 4 years prior so not pandemic related per se, we will see the effects of the pandemic on the profession going forward, since we are having a mass exodus from the profession along with other service areas. It's happening in nursing too. My teacher and medical worker friends are very demoralized, because they were already demoralized before the pandemic because they love serving, but not the abuse they often get from those they are trying to help and others not even involved in the situation but being armchair quarterbacks.

My mom held a lot of threads together for our family and for my Dad specifically, and he was constantly criticizing her. Now, she's gone and when the well is dry, perhaps we learn the worth of water. Some of us. My dad continues on, with whomever he can find left in his life willing to serve and show compassion just one more time . . . We need to create communities that support the humans living in them and the people making sure all the gears are in order . . . .

I had a very compassionate friend, who didn't own a car so took the bus in to work. He'd often talk about the "interesting" people he met on his daily bus ride, and many of them were mentally ill or on some type of drug, most often alcohol. And the reason my friend interacted with so many of them was because he was the nice guy on the bus, the non threatening person, so that's who the drunks chose to sit next to. Often that is what happens, you're nice and your reward is you have to put up with the drunks sitting next to you. One gets to a point . . .

All that is necessary is just that your fellow humans show you some compassion and concern, realizing that others have needs too, and figuring out how to help them. Sometimes it is not that easy, as service people often say, "Oh, I'm fine." Which they probably are to a point, until they are SO NOT FINE. Love up on them before they get to that point! Love up on them even if they say they are fine. You drive for a while, let them rest up in the back of the car . . . Remember that Melissa Etheridge song, "Baby you can sleep while I drive." Volunteer to help a helper, tell them, "You go rest, I/we 've got this!"

We recently send a thank you letter to a hospital staff person who went out of her way to help my Dad retrieve something he dropped while at a doctor's appointment. She went out into the adjacent parking lot in the rain to find it on the ground. So we sent her a thank you note, and copied her supervisor. And true to form, wouldn't you know it, she sent US a thank you reply!!

Thank you, Tina for starting this thread....I will share with DD, who is a teacher. No subs available, so she gives up planning period to teach another class when that teacher is ill. Plus she has a serious health issue herself, but so far has stayed well. So grateful....

I appreciate what they do!

I have a kind of funny story. We were in church years ago, with our new Australian pastor. Nice guy, great family, LOVED having them in our small group. One Sunday, he was speaking about relationships, and their different types (primary, secondary, etc.) and he said, ”For instance, you don’t have a primary relationship with the checkout person at the grocery store…”, and DH hit me and said, ”He doesn’t know YOU very well….”.

Then, there was Neiman Marcus. I used to buy the pink French milled soap there and I had a fairly primary relationship with Karen and Judy at the make up counter. I always came in the entrance that went by shoes and fine jewelry, as sparkly things that I cannot afford always catch my eye.

One day, at that counter, the sherriff who is on duty walks up, and says, ”Hi! I have seen you in here before…” I swear, I looked around to see who else was there! He could not have been talking to me….I looked at his name tag, and it said ’Johnson’….well, no clue there…It’s not like we are in a small town or anything…the Galleria in Houston, so we gabbed for a moment, and then he said he was Micheal. OHHHHH, of course, from the same table in Senior English!!! 27 years ago.

I think we MUST talk to people. Talk to them everywhere. Tell them you appreciate what they do.

My students never in two years complaign about wearing a mask. Now their parents that is a whole other story. I pushed hard to reopen my town schools. I hated the long shut down and online education was a big bust. Sadly in my town I was in the minority of school staff that wanted to return to full inperson last year and many of my peers still are upset that our State no longer allows online learning. When surveyed by our union only 20 percent of my districts teachers favored inperson learning :(

Re Wearing masks to school. I have 7 elementary school-aged greatnieces/nephews. According to their parents the kids in the schools are willing and happy to wear masks after all, their parents and friends are all wearing them. The kids who kick up a fuss about it are those with parents who kick up a fuss about it.

My DIL is a speech pathologist who specializes in treating cancer patients in the hospitals and as outpatients. She is now treating nonvaccinated covid patients in a pandemic. When she does work extra hours she dedicates those hours to her cancer patients not to covid patients. That is what keeps her somewhat sane.

What a great thread and a great reminder to be kind. Thank you, Tina.

This is good to take the time to stop and appreciate, thank you Tina Marie & other nice people who come here

In Canada, we just had a statement broadcasted that we are in for a huge drop in health care professionals due to burnout. Our province is already short of nurses and doctors, made worse by the firing of the unvaccinated. I am fearful for how this will end up. One of our DDs is an RN, the other is a high school teacher - their fatigue is real. Health care professionals, teachers, store clerks, wait staff, delivery drivers, they are all unsung heroes of this pandemic IMO.

This is a wonderful thread. There are so many heros in this pandemic. My DD is a teacher, she has been there for her students, worried about a number of them being stuck at home during the remote schooling and so happy to return to the classroom. Beyond the teachers and medical staff there are so many others that I am thankful that they have shown up. I try to let a workers know I am thankful for them through kind words and generous tips when applicable.