Photo: Lise Lafond

Trip cancelled due to COVID-19? Here is another way to travel the world in the safety of your own home – Postcrossing.

Photo: Screenshot from Google maps

The Jeffery Hale Hospital earned the unfortunate distinction last week of recording the first death related to a COVID-19 outbreak in a health-care institution in the Quebec City region.

Photo: Danielle Burns

We are going into our second month since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Coronavirus pandemic on March 11. Since then much has changed: schools are closed, most businesses are shut and people are trying to balance childcare and homeschooling with working from home, if they are still lucky enough to have a job.

Photo: Cassandra Kerwin

To “flatten the curve” of the COVID-19 pandemic, Premier François Legault ordered the closing of all educational institutions in Quebec on March 13. Four weeks later, the pandemic continues with no end in sight. Working with the Ministère de l’Éducation et de l’Enseignement Supérieur (MEES), some schools have created online virtual classes.

Photo: St. Patrick’s High Fighting Irish

The COVID-19 pandemic has dashed the dreams of two of St. Patrick’s High School’s seven basketball teams. The two had hoped to win a Réseau du Sport Étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) banner for the 2019-2020 season, in the Québec–Chaudière-Appalaches conference.

Dear Editor,

With the COVID-19 pandemic, we are certainly living in strange times. I didn’t realize how strange they were until I had my birthday on March 26 and had to go out grocery shopping. Much to my surprise, I experienced the following:

Question: What is a sign that you are having a birthday during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Photo: Ti Boeuf by Reloopstudio

Instead of lounging around during the COVID-19 lockdown, the members of Ti Boeuf have been making music from home in Saint-Raymond de Portneuf. The rock trio – brothers Derek Lee (guitar) and Landon Ra (bass) Dagenais, and their pal Olivier Cabot (drums) – recorded and produced their first EP, called Anderson I, earlier this year.

Two rainbows in this window seem to be surrounding a COVID-19 “bug.” The message with the lower rainbow is bilingual: “It’s going to be okay” and “Ça va bien aller.”

Photo: Lise Lafond

Spring has arrived and with it the return of our pair of Canada geese.

We have had the privilege of welcoming these beautiful birds back to our property for many years. This week they arrived with five friends, who rested a while and then flew away. But our geese stayed.

Historians, generally a disputatious bunch – although they would dispute that – probably agree on one thing.

Photo: Library and Archives Canada

This street is named in honour of Georges- Auguste Gigault (1845-1915) who was a notary, public servant and political figure in Quebec.

Born in Saint-Mathias de Rouville, the son of Pierre Gigault and Marguerite Wait, he was educated at the Séminaire de Saint-Hyacinthe. Gigault went on to study law in Montreal and was licensed as a notary in 1867. In 1870, he married Isabella Dillon.

Photo: SLC Lions

The CEGEP Champlain–St. Lawrence (SLC) Lions men’s hockey program will move up to a new RSEQ (Réseau du Sport Étudiant du Québec) Division I hockey conference in 2020-21.

In a telephone interview last week, Vincent-Jean Dubé, student affairs counsellor at SLC, confirmed that the Lions will be one of 13 teams in the new division.

Local high school sports teams fell victim to the COVID-19 virus, and the Blazers from Quebec High School were not immune.

In a school that has 330 students, the Blazers fielded seven basketball teams in 2019-20. “This is great, considering the size of QHS,” wrote Danny Weston, the school’s athletic director, in an email interview.

On March 12, following instructions from local health authorities, Jeffery Hale Community Partners (JH Partners) suspended all Wellness group activities at all of its sites, including the Jeffery Hale, Saint Brigid’s Home, McGreevy Manor, the Gatehouse and elsewhere.

So I still can’t totally control the iPad but my skills have improved A LOT over 10 days of social distancing. Yes, I went out and bought the toilet paper and the Kleenex, but today [March 23] I felt resentful about being a victim. I’ve had it and it’s time to strike back. How? With balloons!