The last 12 months have been a doozy, with no shortage of personal loss, upheaval, reinvention and occasionally a bit of hope. We captured all that drama and more in dozens of intimate first-person stories from front-line workers, park dwellers and even an opera singer who brought some joy to her neighbours with a balcony concert. Here are our top memoirs from 2020.
“I rigged a shelter out of a plastic tablecloth and a beach umbrella” | By Antonietta Corrado | February 13
“I grabbed the first things I saw and jammed them into my bag, hoping for a Mary Poppins miracle” | By McKay Carroll | April 3
“I’ll miss talking to my dad five times a day. I’ll miss hearing about his steps. I’ll miss him telling me how to live a humble life, how to be strong and kind at the same time” | By Rehana Dhirani | January 17
“People came out on their terraces and stopped in the street to listen” | By Julie Nesrallah | March 19
“At the end of the day, I’m happy to come back home” | By Tate Hill | December 11
“My mother is 61 and she’s showing signs of dementia. I want to get out so I can take care of her” | By Min Byung-Moon | April 3
“The company exceeded 2019’s quarterly revenue by more than $1 billion. Then Galen Weston declared the end of our $2 pay premium” | By Lucas Lee | July 10
“I feel like one of those people nailing storm shutters to their windows before the hurricane comes ashore. I know it’s going to be devastating” | By Anonymous | March 19
“We were lucky that we had a balcony. We could stick our heads out and talk to our neighbours” | By Mike Zrobin | March 17
“The media talks a lot about ‘respiratory distress,’ but that’s a euphemism. These patients feel like they’re dying” | By Joseph Choi | April 8
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