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Hope Taylor is a man with a story to tell. The LaGrange native arrived back in the United States this week, after roughly a week spent stuck in Peru in a hotel room.

Last week, Taylor did not have his passport, couldn’t get a flight out of Peru, and the country was preparing to completely shut down its borders.

Taylor is home now, thanks to the work of a lot of people.

He credited Drew Ferguson’s office for staying on the phones, working to get him on a flight back to the U.S.

He also thanked a lot of people in LaGrange, who not only kept in contact with him, but also contacted people they knew to help him.

We can’t even imagine the stress level Taylor had to be feeling when the situation turned dire. He had been in Peru for a leadership conference, but as the global COVID-19 epidemic started to advance, it quickly became a race against time to get home.

However, for the most part, he kept a very optimistic view of his situation and leaned on his faith.

It’d be so easy to go into full panic mode under those circumstances, but he didn’t.

We think his story provides an interesting perspective.

For the most part, all of us are in the same boat in Chambers County right now.

Some of us are working, some of us aren’t. Those of us who are working are under unique circumstances with social distancing policies and many other businesses shut down or on reduced hours.

Our kids are home, and they are probably bored out of their minds.

And unfortunately, many people are very worried.

We’re not saying anyone is panicking — we hope not — but it’s clear the stress level of the community is high at the moment.

The good news is most people who contract this disease have it for about a week, feel better after some mild symptoms, and then move on with their lives.

Now imagine being in Taylor’s shoes. What would your stress level be?

A whole continent away from his family right in the midst of a global health crisis, he kept himself busy working the phones and doing everything he could from his hotel room to get home.

He wasn’t worried about whether his favorite restaurant was going to be open or whether there would be a curfew in LaGrange, his hometown

He just wanted to see his family, give them a hug and have them all together, rather than worlds apart.

Perhaps we should all be thankful for that right now.