A new director and new location sees the nonprofit through tough times

By Mindy Lucas

Lori Opozda has been busy lately. Very busy.

   Despite businesses closing and events cancelling due to the coronavirus outbreak, HELP of Beaufort’s spring fundraiser – an Easter ham sale – was in full swing recently.

   In fact, Opozda, who is the non-profit’s relatively new director, said the ham sale had received such a response from the community, the organization ended up ordering double the amount of ham.

By Margaret Evans, Editor

Everybody has their Tales from the Time of Coronavirus, and thanks to social media, those tales are being widely and wonderfully told. From the harrowing to the humorous to the merely mundane, we’re all telling our stories, because here in the land of humans, stories save. They always have and they always will. Hallelujah!

 John Prine is dead. I never met John, but I loved him. He wrote and sang Sam Stone, Hello in There, and Angel from Montgomery among many, many other songs. His voice wasn’t sweet, it was real. And lung cancer didn’t take his life, Covid did. When I learned he was in the ICU in Nashville with the virus, I’d check-in online to learn his status. I was awake and writing at 2 a.m. when a newsfeed lit my laptop screen to inform me that the “celebrated singer-songwriter” had passed. Prine died on April 7 when the moon was full, and pink, and super.

A few days ago, I “ran” into a neighbor as we rolled our trash containers to the curb for pickup. Six feet apart, of course. He always has a smile and a wave, and I was delighted at the chance to have a chat with him. After establishing the fact that our respective households were well – definitely protocol these days – he said he had a story for me. Turns out his son-in-law, daughter, and their 3-month-old baby had been visiting from Up East when the world scaled back. Several weeks later, they’re still here with grandad Doug and his wife. I’m sure lots of folks who can only see their grands virtually right now would be envious of the quality time this family is experiencing.