Helen

71

06/29/2020

Clifton Park, New York

I realized in mid January 2020 that this virus would be more serious than we were being told. By February 1, I thought everybody should be wearing some kind of mouth covering. Friends came down with Covid19 but, fortunately, everyone recovered.

Every year, my husband and I travel to some interesting place in Europe or Asia. In 2019, we spent three weeks in Russia and two weeks in Egypt. Our May 2020 Europe cruise was canceled, and I was relieved. We're thinking about doing more traveling in the U.S. rather than overseas. This is the first time in my life that I have had to consider my age in deciding whether to travel and where to travel. My favorite pandemic story is that I had to mail a box full of toilet paper to my married daughter in Long Island.

I'm like most people. We just have to get through this with as much serenity and common sense as possible. Fortunately, one of my children and a young adult granddaughter live near me. They have been shopping for us. Our granddaughter sewed some masks for both my husband and me because, "I love you and I don't want you to die, Grandma." I was touched. We miss the YMCA but we're walking. I'm figuring out how to to download books. We play cards and checkers and put together jigsaw puzzles. My husband and I both miss our church, Jonesville Methodist, but the entire church community has been making an effort to keep in touch by phone or computer or cards. On my birthday, a church friend picked flowers from her garden and left a lovely bouquet on my doorstep. At Easter, a couple who bike went to about 30 houses, socially distancing as they rang bells, wished us happy Easter and left plastic eggs with little surprises in them.

There are so many nice people living in my area. I think people are trying even harder to be friendly. I've seen a couple of unpleasant episodes - one angry guy getting overly upset over wearing a mask, and a white woman who insulted an Asian woman in the supermarket. My minister and his family are Korean. I hope they haven't experienced any trouble.

Fortunately, we both are retired. Our income was not affected. My cleaning lady lost several customers because of job loss, furloughs, and telecommuting. One son-in-law will be furloughed until the fall. However, both my cleaning lady and my family are doing just fine, financially.

We're retired. One son-in-law is an essential worker in Long Island. He is working mandatory overtime and he is tired. The company is taking stringent precautions to keep their workers healthy. My granddaughter is an essential worker. She prefers to work, but her hours have been cut. She'd actually make more if she had been laid off and collected unemployment and the stimulus package. She works in a store that has an excellent social distancing policy, and all orders come in by phone or online. The customer pulls up, pops the trunk, she puts the order in the trunk, closes it, and waves them on their way. She'd rather keep busy working than collect unemployment.

Again, we are retired and nothing changed for us. Fortunately, my children, in-laws, and grandchildren are doing well financially, even with some cut-backs. Nobody is in danger of losing his health insurance. My high school grandson and my college grandson both developed jobs that are giving them a steady income during the summer. The high schooler is running errands, shopping for people, and doing yard work. The college kid is a Rubik's champion who found sponsors to pay him to test products and write about cubing.

Neither of us is working from home. I am doing some volunteer work, but I do not like Zoom. I've also been tutoring my six-year-old granddaughter in reading and math. We use the computer, Facetime, email, snail mail, and texting. That worked out better than I had hoped. My accountant daughter and my admin asst daughter are working from home. They say it is more efficient and productive than working in an office. My son has his own writing business for 20 years, so he can work wherever he has access to a phone and a computer. However, his workload was reduced due to the Coronavirus.

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My older granddaughter graduated from Hudson Valley in May. She took two courses this past spring. When the courses went online, it was difficult for her. One teacher was fine. The other teacher was clueless about distance learning. I spent hours each week tutoring my granddaughter in the difficult course. My younger granddaughter's kindergarten teacher was so upset by the whole pandemic experience, that she decided to retire two years early. None of my grandchildren enjoyed the online experience. Online education is very different from classroom teaching; they're two very different methods.

I am downloading reading material, but I would much rather have a book in my hand. I like reading the news online or via video. I haven't been out to dinner with friends in four months, but we are phoning and Facetiming. Thank goodness for BBC and PBS shows on tv.

We missed a high school graduation and a community college graduation. One relative missed her prom. A friend turned 90, and we had a parade of decorated cars drive past her home. We had a social distance 50th birthday for 8 people and we held a baby shower/gender reveal party for 24 people in a huge backyard where we could socially distance. Everyone also had masks. Easter was quiet; there was no family dinner. We celebrated everything. We just had to get creative about how to do it safely. We'll see the Fourth of July fireworks in August.

We have two small dogs. Not much changed for them, either. They're used to having us home. We take them on six half-mile walks each day.

Despite being cooped up together so much, my husband and I enjoyed each other's company. It's good to know you can face inconveniences and survive. I think our relationships with all four of our grandchildren are stronger because we talked with them more often and we sent each other daily texts. I got all the sticks picked up from my front lawn, and the weeding is done.

Nobody close to us contacted Covid-19. Some church friends contacted it, but their cases were all fairly mild and they recovered within a month.

That my hoarder husband wasn't such a fool because he bought 120 rolls of toilet paper at the end of December 2019. It was a great sale and he had a manufacturer's coupon AND a store coupon.

I think the people who rushed to the beaches took foolish risks. The White House knew by mid December that a pandemic was in the works. I wish they had been more forthright. I wish the government had recommended face masks back in January. We should have had an adequate stock of PPE. The federal government did a terribly chaotic job in dealing with the pandemic. This may be the age of technology, but if you don't have a vaccine, you're vulnerable. I'd ask them to compare this pandemic to the 1918 Spanish flu and the 14th century Black Death. We are lucky we did not experience that type of horrible illness.

I just don't know. There is more online shopping, but I think that will happen anyway. I hope there is more telecommuting. I hope that the education system and the colleges puts more effort into teaching teachers, from K to post-grad, how to teach effectively online.

No. Thanks for conducting this survey of our thoughts and experiences.

Helen

COVID-19 (Disease)

Southern Adirondack Library System

Southern Adirondack Library System

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Covid History

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