“Good for you”, Jay said. “You met your TIP.” — I used to love sitting in the one armchair in the living room of David’s tiny basement apartment, listening to him talk about the big Catholic family he grew up in near Vancouver or the carefree life he enjoyed with his fellow Canadian expatriates in Paris. His stories were long…

The story which follows was written in Toronto about a year ago. It is submitted in response to Anna Maltby’s request to the thousands of Medium writers, to submit their pandemic stories. Things are looking up in Toronto but we are still in lockdown. …

I tried to shake off the feeling that I was about to be injected with a vaccine that had a spotty track record and was much too close to its best before date. My cellphone lit up with yet another email from a friend containing the same urgent message, “You…

Toronto’s brutal winter, long lockdown, and the lack of vaccines are wearing away the resolve of Torontonians to take care of one another — It is -12C (10.4F) in Toronto today but people in this city are feeling hot under the collars of their puffies. We have been in unremitting lockdown since November 23, our paltry vaccine supplies were exhausted weeks ago and the promised shipments are still days if not weeks away. …

The Story of Two Young Lovers Who Meet on a Train Helen saw him running down the embankment through the grey November morning toward the train, clutching a briefcase to his chest, his overcoat flying out behind him. Over the din of the engines and the chattering passengers, she heard…