NewsHour viewers reflect on the grief, gratitude and hope they experienced in 2021

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• Amna Nawaz:

  As we look back at the last year, we have reconnected with a number of you, viewers and guests we have interviewed over the past year-plus.

  We wanted to hear how you have handled the last 12 months, the challenges you challenges you faced, and your wishes for 2022.

• Monday Busque, Michigan:

  My name is Monday Busque. I'm from Detroit, Michigan, and we

• Amy Scheide, Wisconsin:

  I'm Amy Scheide. I live in the center of Wisconsin.

• Nora Gallina, Florida:

  My name is Nora Gallina. I live in Zephyrhills, Florida.

• Marie Cheslik, Illinois:

  My name is Marie Cheslik. I'm a registered nurse in the city of Chicago.

• Marissa Hackett, Washington:

  My name's Marissa Hackett. I am in Seattle, Washington.

• Matt Berzok, Maryland:

  Hi. I'm Matt Berzok. I'm an attorney and the father of a special needs son who has autism who is 17 and a daughter who's 14.

  The pandemic and the uncertainty around it is very, very difficult for some people, especially my son Ben, with special needs. He does do in person school, but with a mask, which he finds frustrating. And especially for someone like Ben, who has trouble reading emotion even in the best of times because of autism, masking is the kind of thing that makes it more difficult for him to interact and understand with people.

• Nora Gallina:

  I thought everything would be better by now. And, in certain aspects, it is. The vaccines are available, but a lot of sad things have happened along the way.

• Monday Busque:

  In January 2021, I lost both my parents to COVID, and they passed within a week of each other. Six months later, in July, I lost my older sister to cancer.

  It was difficult. Throughout this year, one of the other feelings that I had, alongside with grief, to try to temper that was one of gratitude, and gratitude of all the people helping us, feeling grateful for what I do still have left.

• Marie Cheslik:

  I'm seeing less patients with COVID in the hospital right now, as opposed to in 2020 in November. But I'm seeing more of nurse staffing issues. I'm seeing more hospital issues.

  It's always been an intense job. It's always been a challenging job. But more, now than ever, I'm focusing on just keeping my head above the water.

• Amy Scheide:

  And for almost eight years, I owned a restaurant that, sadly, has now closed.

  People's view of the service industry had completely changed. We were seeing at the beginning people creating banners and paying it forward and being kind and generous. And, in the end, we were being spit on. We were being harassed. We had people who would come in and rip their mask off and drag it along the tables in the dining room.

  It was just an overall shock to see how divided our community and our country as a whole had become.

• Marissa Hackett:

  I'm scared on a bigger level at this point than I was in the beginning of the year right after the insurrection.

  I'm seeing folks turn a blind eye to the gravity of what took place on January 6. And I am wondering if I'm watching the American experience fail in front of me, because this isn't democracy.

• Nora Gallina:

  I'm an immigrant to the U.S. I was born in Argentina, but I grew up in New York. And I have been here since I was a small child and traveled back and forth to Argentina many years.

  And Argentina was always the crazy country, where the governments were awful, and you had crazy inflation, and you had military coups. And that thing didn't happen in the U.S. This is where we were away from that. But we're not away from that so much anymore. And I find that kind of overwhelming.

• Amy Scheide:

  Closing of the restaurant was one of the hardest things that I have done in my lifetime. And I think one of the hardest things was the amount of customers that were just heartbroken at the aspect of us closing.

  And we felt a real responsibility for that. They'd been so supportive. And we miss them.

• Monday Busque:

  If there is a word to use, it would probably be endure, because that is what me and my family have had to do, is to endure a massive amount of change and trauma and grief.

  And I think we have done a pretty good job of enduring and honoring their lives through this past year.

• Marie Cheslik:

  I'm a nurse, and I'm probably the most contagious person my friends are hanging out with potentially. But I am hopeful. I'm hopeful for the future. And I think we have to be.

• Nora Gallina:

  I'm hopeful that things will get better, that I will feel safer and feel more confident in engaging with the outside world.

  I'd like to travel more. I'd like to see my family more. I want to be with the people I love.

• Marissa Hackett:

  Through the midst of all of what we're seeing happen around us politically and socially, I just wish and hope and encourage folks to not forget to connect and connect with the folks they love, do the things they love, and tell people they love them.

• Matt Berzok:

  We have tried to keep our expectations short-term, stay in the moment, and enjoy what we have. And next year is going to bring what next year is going to bring.

  And, as a caregiver to someone with special needs, it's our job, it's my job to adapt and make next year better than this year.

• Amna Nawaz:

  We're so grateful to all of you for sharing your stories and your lives with us.

  Thank you.