From the Editor

ON THE COVER

Cookies Please

Amy Jason’s passion for baking cookies has led her to share baked goods in Cookie Fix locations in Homewood and, most recently, Cahaba Heights. Photo by Karen Askins Design by Kimberly Myers AAs I type this letter, we have hit the one-year mark since our world was forever changed by a virus. None of us had any clue then just how long this strange season would last, and even as more and more of us get vaccinated today, we now know there won’t be one magical day where suddenly everything snaps back to a pre-pandemic normal. What we do know is decades from now we’ll be telling stories from the pandemic of 2020 and beyond to kids and grandkids, so I am starting to think of just what time capsule our photos and magazines from this time will be. At first glance, this issue might not scream “pandemic magazine,” so I thought I’d share how it is, in many ways, very much one. Our Out & About event photos take up very few pages, and any events we preview in The Guide come with fine print to check for updates online before attending. Most of the writing in the pages that follow started not with our usual in-person interviews but with emails, old-school phone calls and Zoom calls. Our photography all took place with social distance, masked photographers and often outdoor settings. Our food feature not only tells the story of how Cookie Fix came to be but also of how supportive the community has been of its rich, chewy, usually chocolate-y cookies even as they were staying at home far more than usual. Later in this issue Broadway actor Tommy McDowell shares about what this past year has been like with his tour of Jesus Christ Superstar on hold and most of the theatre community isolated from one another. Elsewhere in the pages that lie ahead, we share the story of a brave boy who fought a rare form of cancer and how his parents are continuing that fight today through the Rucker Collier Foundation, and three Vestavia Hills High School students share their MOTHstyle essays that will take you to Syria, Sweden, India and Hawaii and all the more notably convey how their experiences tied to these places deeply shaped their journeys. In some ways this all feels like the pandemic era that never ends, but today I write from on a glorious Alabama early spring day where the temperature is hanging out around a dreamy 70 degrees. I moved my “office” to my front porch, feel like I could run 10 miles if I put on running shoes and have plans to dine outdoors with friends tonight. There’s a lot we still don’t know about the future, but today leaves me confident in saying this: Spring has arrived. More vaccines are coming. And good things are in store. Wishing you well as days grow longer and trees grow brighter,