12/30/2020 Local leaders reflect on silver linings, share hopes for 2021 Jocelyn Legare, a nurse, and Ha Tran, a CNA, at Saint Antoine Residence in North Smithfield are pictured in front of the nursing home in April. (Breeze file photo by Lauren Clem) The past year was one of the most difficult on record for the communities of northern Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts. In the first couple months of 2020, it was impossible for most residents to imagine the challenges that would lie ahead. While those challenges started with the COVID-19 pandemic, they didn’t end there. Protests for racial justice, an emotional election cycle, economic fallout and extreme weather events all played a role in the most tumultuous nine months in most people’s memory.