As you know, I’ve been taking a series of photos of the hero who aren’t as visible and dramatic as doctors and first responders, but who are just as vital in keeping our lives and communities functioning during the coronavirus crisis.

They are cashiers, mechanics, postal clerks and mail carriers, Fedex and UPS drivers, convenience store workers,  and all the people selling books and cooking and selling us food in restaurants, diners, and fast-food franchises.

These people form the fabric of our lives; during this virus, we can see clearly how much they mean to us and to our ability to live every day in comfort. I thank them every chance I get. In a crisis like this, some people, rise, some people fall.

Melissa definitely stepped us to keep us healthy and fed.

In a literal sense, all of these heroes are taking some risks – some quite severe – to keep our world from collapsing around us.

Melissa Carll is one of those heroes.

She is the Director of the Cambridge, N.Y., food co-op, where we can shop and get everything we need.

The co-op is sparing us the need to go to the giant supermarkets for food.

The people who shop at the Co-Op do not take more than they need, leaving essential things for everyone.  Today we got (Maria did, I’m not allowed in) two rolls of toilet paper and two rolls of paper towels.

Only a few people are permitted to shop at a time; there is always space between them.

When this crisis started, Melissa asked all of the volunteers – the co-op is operated by members like Maria and me – to stay home. She didn’t want any of us to get sick. But she stayed.

The co-op has fresh fruit and vegetables, organic meats and cereals and pasta, healthy frozen foods, shockingly healthy snacks, and eco-friendly toilet and towel paper. It speaks to me to the value of the community, something it’s not always easy to find in a huge supermarket.

My sister is now working as a cashier for a food chain called Wegman’s in Western New York State. She is 74, and her friends are telling her to stay home. She wants to help. She is working almost every day.

Melissa and two part-time staffers have been working day and night to order and stock and work the register and also prepare curbside food packages for people who want or need to stay outside.

I can’t imagine how tired they must be or how hard they are working.

Melissa and her two staffers are doing the work usually done by scores of people. Maria and I both normally volunteer – she runs the cash register and helps stock the shelves, and I do the laundry once a week.

The co-op is operating on reduced hours and has set up special times for curbside pick-up and elderly shopping. They are exhausted and have asked some volunteers to come back and help.

Only one member of a family is allowed in at a time, and Melissa and Kelly and Kathleen are patient, cheerful, and helpful. And amazingly well organized. Some days the co-op is open for three or four hours, sometimes only for curbside shopping.

Maria, who loves volunteering there, doesn’t want to help now because she’s worried about getting me sick. It makes me sad, but I also appreciate it.

I saw Melissa hauling a huge box of garbage out of the co-op today and yelled at her to pause for a photo for my hero series. She graciously agreed.

Melissa has it all; she is competent and calm.  And nice. I shouted at her from the car that she is very much loved and appreciated. She blushed, I could see it even with her mask on.

I am not sure what we would have done without her. Our lives would be very different.

Melissa is a hero in the time of Corona.