During the health crisis, communities began feeling more disconnected than ever. Friends and families stopped getting together. Even neighbors living across the street or right next door felt like they were suddenly miles apart.
Last year, Kim Morton of Rodgers Forge in Baltimore County, Maryland, was feeling the weight of life in 2020, which she confided to her neighbor, Matt Riggs. She was coping with the loss of a loved one, as well as struggling with anxiety and depression. Then one day, while she was home watching a movie with her daughter, Matt texted her to look outside.
Matt lived just across the street of the row-home neighborhood. He had strung a strand of white lights connecting their houses and told her it was to remind her that they were still connected.
Matt talked to the Washington Post about what inspired his act of kindness. “I was reaching out to Kim to literally brighten her world,” he said. In part, it was because he understood just why Kim was struggling.
The health crisis was draining him, as well. He had two teenagers whom he was struggling to help with remote school, and he was feeling financially drained. By 2020's end, "I was just beside myself," he said.
Kim and Matt certainly weren't alone. Communities all over the world were struggling in more ways than one could count. Which is probably why Matt's act of kindness didn't end with one strand of lights. It actually ended up transforming the entire neighborhood — hundreds of row homes — into a kind of winter wonderland.
Another resident of the neighborhood, Leabe Commisso, opened up about getting involved. She lives at the end of Matt's block and wanted the lights down at her end, too. “I said to my neighbor: ‘Let’s do it, too,’” she recalled. “Before we knew it, we were cleaning out Home Depot of all the lights.”
The tradition is really incredible, and now it's going on for a second year in a row. Even more blocks got involved this year, too. It seems that the lights mean something special to just about everyone.
Perhaps it's the most special to Kim, who, in a way, inspired the transformation with her own transparency about how she was feeling.
"The lights were a physical sign of connection and love," she said. She believes that as it turned out, it was just what everyone needed.
