Covid

What was it like, Gram?

What was it like to live through that time? my grandchildren will say.

It will seem like a million years ago.

When we were afraid to leave the house. Afraid to turn on the TV. Afraid to hear the latest statistics.

The statistics are people. People just like you and me. They are going about their business, probably never hurting anyone, and then bam. They are sick, and they die.

It’s like you’re stuck on the railroad tracks and way off in the distance you see and hear a locomotive, going as slowly as it ever could, inching bit by bit towards you.

It’s like a news report that a hurricane is coming; it’s thousands of miles away, on the other side of the planet; then it’s hundreds of miles away, on our continent; then it’s in the nearest city; then it’s on our doorstep, howling.

The entire planet is having a slow-motion, communal brush with death.

And there’s nothing, really, that you can do.

I fear for my loved ones on the front lines – the health care workers, and their families. I fear for the older ones, the pregnant ones, the little ones.

I curse this government which has short-sightedly ignored the problem until it hit our shores.

I rail at the people who ignore the scientists and go about their business… their unnecessary business, traveling and shopping as if nothing were wrong.

I marvel at the folks who sing on their balconies, yell and clap and bang pots for the first responders, share their food and their goods, do random acts of kindness.

I hope to learn something from this. I hope to change and live differently. I hope to be a better person, live a simpler life, be kinder and less wasteful. Have better priorities… get down to what’s really important.

Let all the people in the world… and we all, every one of us, is affected by this… let us all learn compassion, empathy, simplicity.

One world, one race, one people, together.

So I would like to tell you, child, that we cherished this time with family.

We played games, went for walks, hugged a lot. We started victory gardens, and baked treats, and sang songs. We wrote poems, and read books, and cleaned house, and created art. We let music heal us and nature comfort us. We looked to the best of humanity for the answers. We tried to avoid the horror stories. We honored the lost ones and the heroes.

We survived.