• Rebecca is a short woman who loves to drink coffee and smoke cigarettes. She doesn't talk, and does a few things other people might consider strange, like shake her hands in the air when she gets excited. Kathy discovered that Rebecca enjoys being with people and that she likes to wash dishes. So she started taking Rebecca to hang out at Marlene’s diner. Today, Rebecca has become one of the regulars at Marlene’s. Sometimes she washes the dishes, sometimes she doesn’t, and sometimes she doesn’t act like everyone else. But the folks at Marlene’s shrug: that’s just the way she is, and that’s all right with them.
• Terry had lived for 25 years in an institution, then was transferred to a group home. Sandy [who got to know Terry through her work] found out a number of things about him, including that he likes to fish. She arranged to have him attend the anglers’ meeting up at the Eagles Club. Turned out that the one thing Terry really wanted, that would really put him in solid with the anglers, was a boat. So Sandy got her employers to loan Terry the money to buy a boat and trailer. He still needs a car to pull it, of course, but plenty of people are willing to help with that in exchange for some fishing time.
• Dave found a connection for Eric, who had been in an institution for several years. Because Eric is Ukrainian, Dave decided to start with the Ukrainian Catholic Church and with Alysha’s Restaurant, a Ukrainian hangout in Winnipeg. Eric started spending time at the restaurant, and before long he was talking to the cook in Ukrainian. One thing led to another, and now Eric works at Alysha’s two days a week making pierogis. Michael, the cook, has become his friend, and there are “at least 50” other people who know Eric and accept him as another Ukrainian—as one of their own.”
• Virginia, who Cathy met in a sheltered workshop for people with mental retardation, liked African music. She liked to show off her photo of an African drum. Cathy looked around and, in her small town, managed to find an African music club and a teacher who teaches African music. Cathy told the teacher about Virginia; his response was, 'Well, I guess I should meet her and teach her.' Virginia later tried out for, and was accepted into, the Kawansa Club, a group of multicultural women interested in music.
• When Gerry first met Paulette, almost nobody else in the country even knew Paulette existed. Paulette’s mother told Gerry that her daughter ‘couldn’t do anything.’ Gerry looked a little closer and found, among other things, that Paulette loves children. ‘Well, I know a woman who runs a daycare center—being in a small town you get to know everyone—so I called her up. I told her, I have a friend named Paulette that I’d like you to meet. She loves children. Would you be willing to have her come help with the children?” Now Paulette goes to the daycare center frequently and has almost total charge of the infants for some portion of each day. When she doesn’t show up, people call to ask where she is—she’s that important to them.

Each of these stories is not just about an individual acting as a bridge for another, O’Connell writes, a “bridge out of isolation and into community life. Each of these stories is also about a community that opened up to accept somebody, handicap and all. Kathy and Sandy and company couldn’t do it alone. The Anglers’ Club accepted Terry; Marlene and her friends welcomed Rebecca; the Kawansa Club made space for Virginia; the daycare center welcomed Paulette; and the Ukrainians acknowledged Eric as one of their own.What did it take for the community to do that? Nothing as dramatic as heroism—rather, something more ordinary, like hospitality. It took a simple willingness to open up, to listen, to trust, to see beyond the label to the person, and to accept that person as another human being.”