About Us
The coronavirus pandemic has proven to be a once-in-a-lifetime ordeal – everyday people have experienced unprecedented personal anguish through the death of loved ones and the loss of social relationships and personal livelihoods.
Each of us has a unique story about this experience – a story that speaks to the hero in us all. A story of our lives, our losses, and of those things that kept us going through a time when so many of us felt isolated and alone.
As a result – and from the loss of our own loved ones in this crisis – we at Essential Media sensed a growing need for works that inspire readers and help rebuild lives. Contributors whose submissions appear within an Essential Media title receive a portion of every qualified sale.
It’s called the Pandemic of 2020.
We know it as the age of COVID, and, in years to come, we’ll remember working from home and huddling with family even as we socially distanced in ridiculously small spaces. Or maybe we’ll remember losing our jobs, or shuttering a family business, or the empty shelves that resulted from the panic buying of toilet paper.
Some of us will remember the loved ones we lost from COVID.
My family lost not just one person – we lost two.
Their names were Jay and Rae Ann Fichtner – my mother- and father-in-law.
They both had been attorneys. My father-in-law had graduated law school from the University of Pennsylvania, which he attended on the GI bill after serving in Naval Intelligence during World War II.
My mother-in-law graduated law school from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. It was one of the few law schools in the 1950s that would admit women.
They lived bold, remarkable lives – yet they died within 24 hours of each other due to complications from COVID.
It was their story that made us want to hear yours. Your pandemic experience might have been that of someone who fought to keep a job, or who fought to keep a roof over their children’s heads, or who – like my family – fought to cope with the loss of someone they loved.
Your unique story is one of remarkable courage. Your unique story will motivate, encourage, and inspire. Your unique story is the story of a hero.
Hero, tell your story.
