“There are years that ask questions and years that answer them.” – Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
I stepped onto the boardwalk. The street was empty. Hot. The wind vibrated as it ebbed between the clapboard buildings, carrying a fog of dust. A tumbleweed skipped down the street. Townspeople peered out their windows, anxiety clutching each one. Mid-March 2020 and it felt like a set from a Clint Eastwood movie – I hear the flute followed by “wah wah wah” in my head.
January 2020 brought news of an unknown virus that shut down Wuhan China. I watched in fascination as time-lapse videos showed a 1,000-bed hospital being built from the ground up in about ten days. I watched in horror as videos of patients on respirators and increasing totals of deaths in Italy – a country we visited less than two years earlier – became the top story on the evening news. We tracked the virus’s spread around the globe as it quickly breached the US borders – no wall could stop this.
In one month, New York state went from a single case on March 1 to more than 83,000 statewide and more than 2,300 dead on April 1. By April’s end, the virus would claim another 16,000 lives statewide. (MSN)
The news cameras took us inside the hospitals, showing people on ventilators as their beds were parked wherever space existed in the hospitals. Nurses and doctors pleading for face masks, gloves, and gowns introduced me to an acronym I hadn’t heard – PPE. Bodies of the deceased – of moms and dads, brothers and sisters, friends – found temporary resting places in freezer trucks as morgues were overwhelmed.
The economy virtually halted mid-March as the country began efforts to “stop the spread.” Eerie, as if the country suddenly was populated by ghost towns, people peering out their windows for Eastwood’s no-name, serape-wearing character. We were directed to stay home unless we were an “essential worker.” In addition to the obvious medical personnel and emergency responders, I began to understand the essential work of grocery workers, gas station attendants, Amazon delivery drivers, and liquor distributors. The list continued to grow.
“Stay at home” meant we were cut off from our friends and family members, and they from us. I enjoy reading, yet no book could hold my attention. Nancy pulled out a deck of cards for a few games of solitaire. When she stopped, I took over the deck and began a marathon. As the edges frayed, I found an online version – the keyboard and touchpad will never be the same!
Fortunately, we had our dog, Jude. Unfortunately, he was 16 and his health was failing – going blind and the pain of arthritis. But he was a trooper, giving us nearly three more months. He was a great dog. We worked to comfort him in his final weeks and he provided comfort to us during this time of dramatic change in our lives. His was a steady presence that Covid could not alter, and his love was unconditional.
As a society we talk about “getting back to normal.” But collectively, our lives have been altered in previously unimaginable ways. All of us experience changes – ups and downs in life – but the magnitude of 2020’s changes – well, I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure how “normal” will look.
Note: The t-shirt graphics for the first two in this essay are from Life is Good®. I love their shirts and highly recommend them. Quality materials and creative messages.
Note: The “precedented times” shirt is, I believe, from Signals.com, which offers a cornucopia of shirts with different themes, in addition to other merchandise. If it’s not from Signals, it’s from one (or more than one) of the numerous resellers of merchandise that you can find on multiple sites.
Mike's Fountain Pen 