Some Thoughts One Year into the Pandemic + a Letter to My Future Grandchildren

Saturday, March 13 marked one year since our last normal day in society… although, looking back, that day was anything but normal.  It started out as a regular day, very quickly turned into a weird day full of rumblings that the whole nation was about to shut down, and then it ended with our family’s last visit inside a restaurant.

Who would have thought that in 2020, with aaaallll of the technology and brilliant minds in existence that something like this could happen?  I sure didn’t think it could.

But here we are. 

This past year has been one of the most difficult of my life, second only to 2010 when I miscarried our first baby.  That, of course, was a different kind of difficult, but at least I had my people physically by my side to get me through it.  Human connection has always been important to me, but I never knew just how important it was until it was gone.  I’ve always thought that I did my very best thriving during my alone time, but it turns out, I was wrong.  I NEED people.  And not just on the phone or via text message or Zoom… I need to be with them face-to-face. 

Our whole world was turned upside down on March 14, 2020, and it’s hard to believe it’s still that way one year later.  There are some things I miss more than others, of course, and some things I don’t miss at all about life before the pandemic… overpacked calendars, I’m looking at you!!  There are also some things that I’ll never ever take for granted again…

Hugs. 

Attending church in person. 

Eating dinner out after church with 15+ of my extended family members. 

Gathering around the same table indoors for Sunday lunch with my in-laws. 

Sharing a bottle of wine with B and my Daddy at my parents’ house on Sunday evening. 

Watching my Mama Cass interact with and love on my kiddos at my parents’ house. 

Gathering in my parents’ living room by the fireplace on Christmas Eve. 

Seeing movies at the movie theater with my momma, aunts, and cousins.

Dinners out and rounds of drinks with my girlfriends at our favorite restaurants. 

Bible study and good conversation with friends inside one of our homes. 

Live music. 

Packed dance floors. 

Crowded restaurants.

Aaaand even standing in long lines to do fun stuff… seriously, I would give anything right now to wait in line for an hour to ride Seven Dwarf’s Mine Train in Magic Kingdom!!

There were so many little things in life pre-pandemic that I never in a million years dreamed could be taken away… yet here we are.

2020 was weird, and 2021 has started off just as weird, but it does look like there’s finally a light at the end of the tunnel.  We’re starting to see small glimmers of hope every single day.  Vaccines are being approved.  Vaccines are being administered.  Positive cases and hospitalizations are decreasing.  Small steps are being made every day towards kicking this thing to the curb, and one day this whole thing will all just feel like a very awful, very surreal dream. 

Can you even picture yourself 25 years from now trying to explain this to your grandchildren or great-grandchildren?!  It is going to sound simply unimaginable and positively absurd.  I decided to compose a letter to my future grandchildren today just to have all of these thoughts in one place...

* * *

Dear Future Grandchildren,

Once upon a time in the year 2020 a pandemic swept the whole globe.  The entire world was on lockdown, and it was like something straight out of one of those disaster movies.

Restaurants, movie theaters, hair salons, and all other nonessential businesses were closed.  People had to grow their hair long or cut their own.  Parents had to homeschool their kids for months on end.  TV show production was halted.  Concerts were canceled.  Artists improvised by performing in their own living rooms on live TV to keep us entertained.  Trips were canceled.  Planes were grounded.  Gas plummeted to $1.75 per gallon because nobody was going anywhere.  Seriously, you couldn’t even go to your parents’ or grandparent’s or friends’ houses… even if they lived right down the street.

All essential businesses remained open, of course, but everyone was required to wear masks upon entry.  Stores had to put up signage to route people one-way, and they all put tape on the ground to tell people where to stand so they could all remain at least six feet apart.  That way nobody would have to risk being infected. 

People started hoarding the strangest things making them nearly impossible to find… toilet paper.  Sidewalk chalk.  Flour.  Sugar.  Syrup.  Beef.  Chicken.  Hand sanitizer and household cleaners.  Although, I think those last two make a little more sense than the others…

Strange terms started to emerge from the medical and science fields and the media… “Social distancing.”  “Flatten the curve.”  “Covid-19.”  “Global pandemic.”  “Quarantine.”  “Coronavirus.”  “Six feet away.”  “Mask up.”  “Shelter in place.”  “Stay at home orders.”  “Frontline workers.”   

Things were a little scary for a while there, but as with anything else, there were some bright spots in the darkness.  Calendars magically cleared and everyone was afforded the opportunity to slow down.  People started cooking and eating around their dinner tables again.  Zoom and FaceTime kept everyone chatting “face-to-face” since they couldn’t be together in person.  Netflix and Disney+ kept everyone entertained.  The earth literally started healing from the lack of pollution.  And memes on social media kept everyone laughing.  (And in case memes no longer exist by the time you’re reading this, just Google it.  For the record, I hope they still do because a good meme is one of my favorite things.)

Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost that first year, and hundreds of thousands of heroes emerged in the form of doctors, hospital workers, firefighters, police officers, manufacturers, grocery store workers, UPS and Fedex delivery people, truck drivers, mail carriers, and teachers.  Scientists worked around the clock to figure out how to get us back to some sense of normalcy. 

Then one day a vaccine came along, and then another, and then another, and there was finally some light at the end of a very long tunnel.  I’d love to tell you the vaccine wiped out the virus completely and immediately, but the truth is, as I type this, we’re still living it and we don’t know exactly what the future holds just yet.

I’m optimistic that the end is near, though, and I just can’t wait to get back to doing all those day-to-day things that I’ll never take for granted again.  I pray that you never ever have to experience something like this in your lifetime, but if for some reason you do, please let me be gone by then.  LOL (that stands for “laugh out loud” just in case people aren't saying that anymore). 

Love Always,

Your Grandmother (or whatever it is that you call me for my grandmother name, because honestly, I’m only 38 years old as I type this and I haven’t given that the least bit of thought)

*Linking up with My Glittery Heart, The Other Side of the Road, and The Sirois Family for Hello Monday.