The news that all the bridge reopenings will be delayed by several months was something of a blow to those in the area most affected by the closure.

While nearly all of us have been put through the mill over the past year dealing with the traffic snarls, noise and general hubbub that the GLX project has wrought, none have felt it more keenly than the business owners who have been all but cutoff entirely from conducting business as usual.

Some are crying foul and demanding compensation for the losses they have suffered. While this is unlikely to happen, we can certainly sympathize with the sentiment.

Area residents, too, feel especially put out by the whole affair, and who can blame them? Maybe free Charlie Cards for the duration of the construction period would be appropriate. Again, an unlikely scenario, but we can dream, can’t we?

But the real heroes emerging from this morass seem to be those stalwart business owners who are hanging on as best they can, even though many area merchants feel that they have been too cut off and inaccessible to their usual and hoped for new customers.

As difficult as it may be for all of us, let’s try to keep in mind that making a special effort to support these businesses would be a highly civic minded thing to do.

Put yourself in their place and imagine what it must feel like to be dealing with such a challenging situation and see what you can do to offer them some of your patronage.

After all, we’re all in this together.