After Abraham Walker’s older brother was shot and killed in a home invasion, he decided to move his family from New Orleans to Northern Virginia. He was drawn by the chance to give his boys a life in which they wouldn’t see the loss of friends and relatives as “normal.”

He describes himself as an “aggressive optimist” who looks for the good during the awful, and when he doesn’t see it, he tries to create it. It’s why when he clicked on a Facebook page for residents in a neighboring county, he read through the posts and then started typing: “What are some positive things that have happened to you because of COVID-19?”

In the days since, hundreds of people have responded, offering comments that tell of everything from simple appreciations to life-altering revelations:

I have been having the BEST time with my 4-year-old. I never thought of myself as a good mother, but this isolation has brought us so close together.

I successfully grew a tomato.

We have a swing set in our yard now.

Before COVID I just got up late, ran around in a panic, usually in a bad mood or at least sad, endured a road rage-filled commute, and arrived at the office late. ... Now I wake up and think, “Oh, I woke up again” and then I go out to my balcony amidst the pine trees and the chirping birds and rising sun.

Walker has also been thinking about some posts long after he read them:

I think a lot of people are going to be so traumatized by their old lives that they won’t go back. I hope some people don’t go back. That’s the beautiful thing about destruction. You used to have a life. The coronavirus destroyed that life. You now get to decide how you rebuild that life.

Walker says his brother’s death was a tragedy, but it pushed him to relocate to Northern Virginia, where his family has created a life, made friends, and connected with neighbors. He says, “Look at the afterward. History tells us there is always an afterward.”