Getting Through Together

GETTING

THROUGH TOGETHER

Lakewood residents share the ways they adapted and evolved during the past year.

BY CHRISSY KADLECK

No one was immune from the effects of COVID-19.

The pandemic was an oddly collective experience that still affected every person in some unique way, regardless of age, education, income, profession, wealth or zip code.

But a spirit of pushing forward, giving back and taking care of community helped those living in the 44107 survive and even thrive.

Here are a few of their stories.

BACK TO THE BASICS

As owners of Cleveland Vegan, Laura Ross and Justin Gorski credit keeping a positive outlook for being able to successfully juggle the demands of restructuring their restaurant on the fly, homeschooling three young children and keeping dozens of people employed during a pandemic.

“Initially, it was scary,” says Laura Ross, adding that she and her husband tuned into their radio for the announcement of the statewide shutdown. “I realized it was not just myself and my family that we had to be concerned about; it was also our team of 35 people and all of their concerns and questions about what would happen with their pay, their positions, their personal situations. It felt overwhelming.”

But this inspiring duo decided to close their 40-seat eatery/bakery and return to their roots with their personal chef service to provide meatless meals for a month to help with the small business’s operating expenses.

“It brought us back to when we first started our business and it was just me and my husband,” says Ross, 41, who also teaches yoga at Inner Bliss Studio in Rocky River. Gorski, 44, is also a musician and recently released a film “Bird from Memory” of which he hopes will be accepted into the Cleveland International Film Festival.

“I always wanted to homeschool my kids,” she says. “It was challenging, but I enjoyed having that time with them. We incorporated a lot of natural elements into schooling like hiking and nature scavenger hunts. We also baked cakes and cooked to teach them

about measurements. They learned about money and how to use it when shopping for groceries, or at other places. Essentially, we focused on practical life skills.”

Cleveland Vegan initially reopened at the end of May for to-go service, and then in June for restricted indoor dining. It’s to-go business has almost tripled just on Uber Eats alone. “We had to create new business practices to respond to the amount of togo business,” she says. “Every week we had to tweak the staff schedule in order to understand the new business flow along with the constant struggles of Covid.”

In business since 2012, the couple became parents to their business at almost the same time they became parents to their oldest son, Eli, who is 9. Two more have joined the brood — Simone, 7, and Hugo, 5. “With each child that came, it pushed me more and more toward finding balance with the business,” Ross says. “We’ve always valued our time together as a family. Finding balance between family and business was always important; the pandemic just solidified that for us.”

The couple has always shut down the restaurant for a week in the summer to take a break from the business and to give their team a break as well. Coming out of the shutdown, they decided the importance of self-care even more. They have intermittently offered more to give back to their employees in the form of providing an unexpected bonus in their paycheck or deciding to close and give everyone a day off. Coming out on the other side of the pandemic has “emphasized to me how important taking care of our team is, not just financially, but also giving them time off for themselves.” Skyrocketing rent forced Valerie Martin to leave her beloved apartment on the west side of Lakewood because she could no longer manage it on her social security income.

Luckily her church was able to find her a spot at the Westerly, an affordable independent senior living community, so she could stay in the city.

All of this change was happening just as the nation was shutting down for COVID-19, making it especially traumatic and isolating for 77-year-old Martin.

“I didn’t know anybody, and I have no family,” she says. “It’s me, a bird and a plant.”

But Martin’s world was about to open up thanks to a generous giveaway from the Barton Center, a nonprofit senior center that happens to have its full-service facility on the ground floor of the Westerly. The Barton Center was able to partner with Simply Virtual, another nonprofit that had secure funds to provide Amazon Fire tablets to residents living in local senior communities, including the Westerly and Fedor Manor.

“That made a huge difference and really helped me,” she says. “When I got my tablet, I was able to access my Facebook and my emails. I had over 2,000 emails that I never read. I was able to connect with church friends to keep in touch with people that way.”

She was also able to reconnect with her passion for flying airplanes. Martin, who took her first flying lesson in 1967 with a coupon out of flying magazine and went on to earn her commercial pilot’s license in 1973, says she’s now able to “live vicariously” through other pilots and pages she follows on social media.

“I watch their videos and I chat with them on messenger or Facebook,” she says, adding that she did fly an airplane from Burke Lakefront in July. “I still want to be a flight instructor and there’s no age limit. I’m hoping I can raise the money somehow to do it.”

DELIVERING ON FOOD NEEDS

A life-sustaining food pantry became a potentially unhealthy proposition overnight with the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, food insecurity was at an all-time high as peoples’ jobs were uncertain and potentially in jeopardy as nonessential businesses were forced to shutter.

“After Gov. Mike DeWine issued a statewide stay-athome order, we completely changed how we delivered our services in a matter of a few days,” says Trish Rooney, executive director of Lakewood Community Services Center, which has been providing groceries for more than 30 years. “We switched to a drive thru and since the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services waived normal requirements for health reasons, we only asked people their zip codes. By July 2020, we were serving 41 zip codes.”

People were coming from Lorain and Warrensville Heights, Rooney says. She knew that was unsustainable and couldn’t possibly be supported forever, especially since the nonprofit was funded to serve three West Side cities.

“We were also worried about our clients,” she says. “It was difficult for them to get transportation and get to the LCSC. We have a lot of seniors, people with mental health issues and single moms who had kids at home. We made the decision that on September 1, 2020, we would go to a 100% delivery model.” Pivoting to all deliveries would do two things, she says. One, it would keep people safe. Two, the delivery area would be in their funded communities, which may ensure its continued viability.

A historically volunteerrun operation with only one paid staff member, now LCSC had to hire two fulltime people, buy a second van and plan delivery routes.

“It’s very expensive to do it, but touch wood so far, we’ve been able to manage it. I think it’s actually improved the service,” Rooney says. In fact, in July, LCSC was able to deliver three days’ worth of food to 2,230 people, 90% of those being Lakewood residents.

Drivers, who interact with clients twice a month when making deliveries, have learned about the families and those who might have additional needs such as diapers, school supplies and pet food.

“It was a slow start, but we’ve gotten a lot better at it,” she says. “Our drivers, they know people on their route and it’s actually, in some ways, become more personal — that shocked us. What we’ve decided is for the foreseeable future, we’re going to keep it this way, especially with the variant.”

LIVING AND WORKING AT HOME

The housing stars aligned for Anthony Feller in the summer of 2020 when he finally ended a multi-year search, buying his first place on Ethel Avenue.

“I put in the offer for the house and then I found out my great uncle used to live here and he did a lot of work on this house,” he says. “It was wild.”

Feller and his longtime girlfriend, Nichole, live in the home with their three dogs who also came to them during the pandemic, including Clementine, a Golden Retriever puppy, and two terrier mixes, Bella and Ruggles, that Feller inherited when his mother passed away last year from cancer.

“The city just has so much to offer. I love it here,” says Feller, who grew up in Rocky River. “There’s a lot going on. There are a lot of restaurants and bars, but then you also have a suburban feel. It’s a great mix.”

Since March, Feller, 30, has worked almost exclusively from home in his role as a mechanical engineer for The Equity Engineering Group Inc. in Shaker Heights.

“The transition to working from home, I thought it was actually pretty easy for me and probably easier for me than a lot of others,” he says. “My company acted quickly and committed to us working from home. I was able to take all my equipment and computer monitors and make it work.”

While his company is adopting a hybrid schedule with a mix of office and work from home, Feller says not having a 35-minute commute was one of the best parts of being remote.

“I found myself having all this extra time. On a typical coffee break at work, you go take a walk to the kitchen. On a coffee break at home, I can go down and do a load of dishes or knock out chores during the day. It’s been really efficient in terms of managing personal time, in my opinion.”