Editor’s note: As we navigate through this difficult time of dealing with the coronavirus, it is important to capture those instances where Memphians are coming together for each other. Those acts of kindness, generous moments and just feel-good instances happening all around us. Our reporters will be out looking for these. We also want to hear from you. If you have a nomination for our Memphis Kindness blog, email us at memphiskindness@dailymemphian.com. Thank you for reading.  — Ronnie Ramos, executive editor

Sunday night as nurses were leaving and arriving at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Collierville, it was another shift change, but nothing about it was normal.

Some left or walked in with tears, because they were overwhelmed by the support displayed

Thank you signs, horn honks, applause and cheers came from Collierville residents gathered to spend an hour showing care and support to those on the front-lines.

Read more.

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My wife and I reached the drive-thru window at the Starbucks at Union and McLean on Monday morning, March 30. Like all other restaurants during the pandemic, the coffee shop’s interior was off-limits.

 I extended my cell phone out my car window to pay digitally for our two large coffees.

“The car that was in front of you paid for yours,” said the employee at the window wearing blue rubber gloves to take payments and hand over the coffees. “Would you like to pay for the car behind you?” she asked.

I said, “Wow, that was nice. And yes, I’ll pay for the next car.” Then I cracked a feeble joke, “Even though the car back there is a BMW.”

 I’d soon regret that attempt at humor for two reasons.

“It’s been going on for an hour,” the Starbucks employee said, referring to the paying-it-forward phenomenon that infected the drive-thru.

An unbroken streak for an hour? I asked. Yes, she said, smiling.

Then she revealed I owed $3.57 for the BMW behind me. So I wound up paying $2 less than what the Ford in front of us had paid on our behalf. 

One of the downsides of virtual classes is the inability to see fellow students. Friends that you pass in the hall aren’t able to get together and debate the issues of the day.

A group of Christian Brothers High students has found a way to ease the absence a bit – gathering daily for lunch just like they used to do on Walnut Grove east of Interstate 240.

Some members talked to columnist Geoff Calkins about the virtual mealtime and the camaraderie that comes with still having the ability to gather daily.

You can find the column here.

It started in a mom and art lover’s heart. Amanda Eckels Goetze runs Goetze Art & Design from her home on Garden Lane.

“I was thinking of the moms at home with little bitties,” she said. “I thought it might be a nice project for them to get involved with at home.”

So, Goetze put a pile of blank canvases on her front step, told the neighborhood kids to come pick them up and prepare for an art show.

Sunday, the Chickasaw Garden Kids’ Show lined the curb in front of Goetze’s home, along with a parade of humanity, some from outside the neighborhood, who heard about it and trickled in to see.

Kids with finished canvases came on bike and foot, their parents trailing along.

Anthony Mascioli, 10, painted a scene from Glacier National Park, a place he has never been.

Bo, his brother, 7, came up with landscape with mountains, trees and slender blue stream of coursing water.

“What I like best is that my waterfall looks like a waterfall,” he said with triumph.

Jack Hill, 9, is learning online like kids everywhere. For him, the neighborhood art project was an art lesson.

“I got to learn about painting,” he said. “I used acrylics.”

Goetze was smiling in the background.

“I have never seen so many people out walking in the neighborhood as I have during the quarantine,” she said. “I thought all ages could enjoy the final product.”

Goetze’s business, Goetze Art & Design, helps people buy art for their homes and businesses from her “gallery on the go.”

“I don’t have a brick-and-mortar business. I do pop-up shows and open houses,” she said.

Her next idea? Wednesday, the curb in front of her house will be lined with work of the artists she represents.