OTTAWA -- Chantal Dupuis knows what it is like to be isolated but it is not why you might think.

"I have cornea dystrophy," Dupuis said. "Literally making me so light sensitive I could not be outside."

As her world got smaller, she took up painting as a way to remember what the outside world looked like.

In 2017 she received a cornea transplant but was hooked on painting.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the number of deaths reached 3,000. Dupuis had to pick up her brush.

The paining she created depicts a man lighting a street lamp after a wagon carrying a single body has passed by.

Dupuis is donating it to the City of Ottawa Archives.

Marie Lamarre and her family found themselves gathered around the kitchen table passing the time solving jigsaw puzzles.

Lamarre is donating family photos to the archives because she wanted to show how the lockdown brought some families closer together.

"My favourite memory was sitting right here and I would watch my mother-in-law and daughter have these conversations," she said. "It’s good we are showing every facet every side of the story the good the bad and the ugly."

The City of Ottawa Archives is asking residents to preserve everything from diaries to business records to unpublished works of fiction written during the pandemic.

Due to COVID restrictions, digital copies are all they can accept right now. Physical items will be accepted once it is safe.

Donations can be made by contacting the City of Ottawa's Archives at archives@ottawa.ca