joan parlin

In March of 2020 a mysterious new illness began spreading all over the world.  Enough people began to get seriously ill so that the doctors, and even the government, began studying this new sickness.  They called it COVID or “coronavirus disease.”  Many, especially the very young and the very old, were hospitalized and put on ventilators to help them breathe.  Thousands and thousands died. 

Panic set in.  We were all told to wear masks, to stay inside and not mingle with ANY others outside our own families and maybe close friends, which came to be known as your own “pods.”  You were told to wash your hands frequently.  Even going to the store was scary, since anything you touched might be contaminated.  If you had to go to the market for food, you were urged to put all the groceries you brought home on a shelf to “air” and allow the germs to dissipate.  God forbid if you touched your mouth or nose before washing!  Hand sanitizer became de rigueur and was in place at the front door of every store.  Everybody was buying it and placing it in their cars and in many rooms of their houses.  If you were even only exposed to a person who got COVID but you didn’t have it yourself, the law required you to quarantine for at least 10 days.  Of course, if you had gotten sick, you had to wait until you tested negative before re-entering the world.  The government supplied and mailed four home test kits free for each household. It was the beginning of a lonely, frightening time for most people.

In the midst of all this, in April, BOOM, I was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma requiring six months of chemotherapy to be administered every two weeks.  Blackie and I decided to move up to Silver Bay where we were so lucky to have family and to drive down to New Jersey for my treatments, rather than staying in our apartment where we would be shut in and lonely.  Andrew and Anne-Louise were still living at Silver Bay year-round, as were Ken and Lauren.  Tim and Barbra and the boys moved up for the duration, too.  We felt so fortunate to be able to visit safely outdoors in our own little “pod” while so many others were literally penned up in small houses or apartments.  Schools were closed.  This was the beginning of remote learning, in which teachers held their classes over the internet, a new type of learning for students.  (This later proved disastrous when schools re-opened the next year, and teachers learned how much ground, both academically and socially, the students had lost.)  Because the schools were closed, we were lucky enough to have Elliot, a Harvard senior, and Isaac a Columbia freshman, Max and Ethan both high-schoolers, all up at Silver Bay to keep us company.

Whenever one did venture out, one saw only masked people on the street and in the stores.  Hand sanitizer was almost a requirement.  Everybody was buying the hand sanitizers and using them at intervals throughout the day.  After the virus had lasted almost a year, a vaccine was developed in record time.  People rushed to get vaccinated, and proof of vaccination was required at any of the mass gatherings that began to start up…concerts, plays, schools, etc.  When you got your vaccination, you were given a card with the date and type of vaccine on it, and it was important to carry it with you in case you were asked to show it.  Many places would not admit you if you didn’t have it.  Blackie and I had moved to our Saratoga senior living complex in February 2021 when people were still masked, and it was so hard to get to know people, because we couldn’t tell them apart.  So many ladies with the same gray hair!

Several new procedures were developed to help people cope and to keep people safe, some of which are still being used today.  For instance, supermarkets offered not only delivery services but also the pre-ordering of the food over the internet, so you didn’t even have to physically go to the store.  One could download the app for a store, (this in itself was new) go to the website where all the products were listed, and just click on a product, and an in-store “shopper” would fill bags for you and deliver them to your home.  Soon a new company was formed called “Instacart” which was linked to many of the supermarkets and which you linked to your credit card.  After you had filled your bags online, you could select whether you preferred to pick up your groceries or have them delivered to your home.  Your personal shopper would text you when the order was ready.  Of course, this created new jobs for the in-store shoppers.  Now, even after the pandemic, Instacart remains popular.  It’s wonderful for old people who can’t get out, sick people, or people who just don’t have the time to shop.

As many people as possible began to work remotely.  They did all their work online.  Zoom, which was still fairly new, enabled workplaces to have meetings with all “present.”  Even now after the pandemic has subsided, many people still prefer to work remotely so that they can live wherever they want.

 One other, not so fortunate, remainder of the virus is the virtual learning that schools have put in place.  Gone are the wonderful snow days for students.  Teachers just put their lessons online, and the kids and teachers have no day off!

By 2021, COVID had subsided, though it was not completely gone, and probably never will be.  Booster vaccines are now available, and it has become routine for people to get a vaccine every year along with their flu shots.  These vaccines have made the symptoms much milder.

2020 was a year to remember, and not fondly, for all of us who lived through it.

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