To the Journal editor:

All we need in this COVID pandemic is to recall the lessons of courage and endurance from past generations who faced great crisis and hardship.

One such crisis was World War II. As a child growing up in the Ukraine, I heard over and over again about the extreme hardship my mother, her two young sisters and my grandmother endured for over four years under the occupation of German troops, losing all freedom of movement and speech, being forced to house a German officer, facing near starvation, winter months without heat and fearing the worst from when my grandfather was wounded and captured on the front line near Kiev.

They never lost hope. They learned to cope with extreme hardship. They made it through. Now we are faced with a sinister war with an enemy we cannot see.

Our hardships and minor deprivations are small when compared to what the World War II generation went through. Wearing a mask, keeping distances and giving up social gatherings won’t kill us. And these small sacrifices are temporary.

We are blessed to have courageous leaders in Lansing whose decisions will protect us and our loved ones. We need to support them.