Rent for free, rainbows, and straight up positive vibes during the COVID-19 pandemic

Luca gets community to wish Grandma happy birthday A young man named Luca Masciotra gave his grandma Ute Sell the ultimate 70th birthday gift as she remains in isolation.

MONTREAL — In the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic, citizens around the world are sending positive vibes in a variety of ways to help curb negativity.

CTV News Montreal put a call out for viewers to share their positive stories, and messages began pouring in including videos of people ringing bells in thanks to frontline workers, pictures of people hanging messages of love and support and even a landlord who got his mortgage suspended so he wouldn’t have to charge his recently-unemployed tenant rent.

Nav Francis posted on his Facebook page that he called his bank to inquire about suspending his mortage payment for a month so he wouldn’t have to charge his tenant rent.

“After being on hold for more than one hour, I got it done,” wrote Francis. “It took a lot of time, but I hope I have other landlords on my Facebook that can go out of their way to help tenants if possible.”

Francis said his post isn’t meant as a brag or boast, “but really just to push other landlords to help their tenants if they can.”

Francis said his tenant was extremely happy.

"He couldn't believe it really," Francis told CTV News. "He never missed a payment, always paid on time, great tenant, so I tried my best to help him if possible."

Francis said a lot of banks are waiving mortgage payments for one to six months.

The Facebook page “Ça va bien aller! - Mouvement Positif - Covid 19” includes a wall full of positive messaging including children’s drawings, messages of support and touching stories of those trying to make getting through the pandemic more positive.

One viewer messaged CTV News writing that her son did something special for his grandmother on her 70th birthday.

“Our son sent her a FB message via a post on our community page, and asked for the members to wish his grandma a happy 70th birthday,” wrote Anna Sell. “He got 148 likes and close to 100 responses. It made his grandma’s day while she has to stay in self-isolation.”

A viewer sent CTV News a link to a video of her 84-year-old father Jean-Paul Dubois and sister Diane visiting Jean-Paul’s wife Nancy Dubois at her care facility. Nancy is in quarantine at the local seniors care facility in small town of Cleveland, Quebec.

Since posting the video, it has been viewed over 5,000 times.

Jean-Paul and Nancy were married on Valentine’s Day in 1959, and have seven children, and eight grandchildren. Nancy began staying at the care home in February.

The “MTL COVID-19 Mutual Aid Mobilisation d'entraide” page includes stories from people offering help in a variety of ways.

Lacy Alana is a therapist and improv teacher and offered a free online gathering/workshop this week for those without therapeutic or psychiatric support.

Institutions are also helping healthcare centres out such as College Jean-de Brebeuf that offered parking spaces for free to employees from the CHU Sainte-Justine earlier this week.

Young parents Amely Laporte and Sebastien Boudreault welcomed baby boy Nathan into the world Mar. 16, and sent out a note of support from the most vulnerable of all.

"Ca va bien aller," reads a note with a rainbow lying across the sleeping young boy.

His mother said Nathan is doing well and met his family via Facetime.

BRIGHT SIDE

CTVNews.ca is introducing a new series of uplifting stories as the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic.

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