Helen and Frank: Getting Old and Finding Love with Food, Wine, Theater, Music, Crime and COVID, by Thomas Morgan. In a St. Louis memory care center, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and a world reeling under lockdown, two unlikely people - Helen and Frank - run afoul of each other. And somehow, despite their faults and bad intentions, almost inexplicably … they fall in love.

The viral infection we know as COVID-19 has been the defining event of 2020, perhaps the defining event of our lifetimes. - Thomas Morgan Hyers, M.D.

Frank Palermo in this story lived in a memory support complex in 2020. From March to September of 2020, Frank basically was confined to his apartment. His food was brought to him, and his trash was hauled away. He was lucky in that he could still drive his car, but where could he go? Restaurants, theaters, concerts and other entertainment venues were unavailable to him.

He was prohibited from group meals and other forms of socialization with residents in his complex. Frank had the internet as his primary form of communication and education. It was the way he experienced the world for almost six months. His confinement made Frank a stronger person, but to many older people the enforced isolation became unbearable. Helen, a penniless widow, moved into Frank’s complex in September and changed his life. The story of Helen and Frank aims to put a human face on the extraordinary year of 2020.