This is the Moth Radio Hour from PRX, and I'm Catherine Burns.

A few years ago, I hosted a radio hour where all the stories involve people going out of their way to help a stranger.

Employees going the extra mile for a customer.

Neighbors helping a misdelivered package get to the right destination.

Or a hug offered it just the right moment.

The response from you, our beloved audience, was tremendous.

So we were inspired to bring you more stories of people going out of their way to help.

We heard a lot about neighbors taking care of neighbors during the pandemic.

We all suffered to one degree or another, but the isolation hit some of us harder than others.

So first up, a very energetic and stressed out writer coming out of a period where he couldn't write.

From the Skirball Center in New York City,

here's Nathan Englander.

The pandemic started so soon after I moved to Canada.

I had no idea it was global.

I just thought it was a local Toronto thing.

Like charming city, shame it's always closed.

It was me, my wife, Rach, whose job we moved for,

our daughter Olivia and our baby, I mean a real baby son, Sam.

And literally, by the time we could get two kids into snowsuits, they were like, let's wrap this back up and head on inside.

And when we told the Canadians, you know, as a nation, like if you wear a mask at the supermarket and spend some time in the house, your neighbors won't die.

They were like, that sounds utterly sensible.

So we did that.

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