As 2020 dawned, I was planning for the 40th “eruptiversary” at Mount St. Helens in southwest Washington state, where the book I’d written a year earlier would receive the attention its subject deserved. David Johnston’s death and his last words (“This is it!”) are well-known, but the 30 years that came before it are not.

As planning for the May event was unfolding, which would have included Bill Nye and a wonderful art exhibit in Portland, Oregon, my third book hit the bookshelves. I had committed to write a book in the “Images of America” line for Arcadia Publishing about my hometown — Manteno, Illinois — located 50 miles south of Chicago. It launched on February 10, a launch event was held February 15, and one more book signing was held at the town’s history museum on March 7. And then the pandemic was declared March 11. Shelter-in-Place orders followed.

The book launch on February 15 was one of the last times I hugged my 90-year-old mother. She’d been living in a nursing home, and when the pandemic was declared, the home closed to visitors. A month later, she tested positive. The test result came on a Tuesday. She died 4 days later. She didn’t linger, and for that I’m grateful. But make no mistake. I did not get to hug and cradle my mother as she died of Covid-19. It’s a story I’ll talk more about some other time. For now, it is the end of 2020 and healthcare workers have begun receiving vaccines. Hallelujah.

May 25, 2020, was the other flashpoint in what was already a tough year. Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes, 46 seconds. Floyd died as a result. The world let its despair and anger be heard.

If I don’t say more here, it is because my website provider has rules about what I can post and what I cannot. I will not lecture about the sanctity of every single life on Earth, though I value each. I won’t speak about the importance of masks, though I believe in them. I won’t discuss the business world or schools or politics, though my heart goes out to all who have suffered.

As 2020 comes to a close, it is more important than ever to refocus on what it means to be a human being. We are called to be each others’ keepers. We are called to put our feet into the shoes of our neighbor, here and abroad. We are called, each day, to seek to understand what we see. History repeats, and personally, I don’t want to live through another year like this one. We must do better. All of us.

Thank you for reading this post. Good thoughts, wishes, and prayers are conveyed from me to you.

Melanie Holmes