Remembering the Covid Year…

The year 2020 was an odd one and when I went to write my Christmas letter I had a stirring temptation to simply put,

“Dear Family & Friends,

This year, apart from our visit to London in January, we did absolutely nothing…

Along with everyone else in the world…”

Of course that would not be strictly true because there were lots of folks who worked hard to keep everyone safe;

hospital personal and medical teams,

home deliveries from the stores, or kindly neighbours who’d ask if we needed anything,

IT gurus who kept schools and offices going through video calls and zoom meetings,

letters and cards delivered regularly to our mailbox, and good old fashioned phone calls, or should I say WhatsApp and FaceTime calls.

We were creative with our mandatory masks.

I became quite blasé about using eye shadow and mascara or glasses to add character to an otherwise unexpressive face.

The roads were easy to travel, it’s amazing how few people ventured out in the early days…no-where to go of course because most places were closed.

Working from home became a habit for many and some companies never went back full-time.

We all had our own way of making sense of the world as it stood still for most of the year.

Instead of writing off 2020 as many of my virtual friends on social media were doing, I decided to ponder just how much I learned about myself.

I found I rather enjoyed not having to be here there and everywhere all the time.  I had nowhere to go and no choice about it.  I could opt out and go my own way without interruption or any twinges of guilt.

I could be totally unsociable…

Footlights was the perfect place for that!

My calendar was refreshingly empty, month after month after month!

Hubs and I decided to make these enforced shelter-at-home months count.

I made a list of things that needed doing and included fun projects that would give us a sense of achievement,

like repairing the quilts Hubs had inherited from his grandmother.

I joined millions of other women in a massive spring clean that included sorting through the attic, cupboards and tool sheds

I nurtured a garden and dug a few more beds and grew vegetables and zinnia, salvia and Rosemary.

When I was finished with my cleaning and wasn’t outside I moved on to sorting old papers from my parents’ estate with a view to laminating the birth, marriage and death certificates.  This project never happened…it just didn’t capture my imagination as much as other things.

I took my cue from the cats and settled for short naps with my main squeeze instead.

Hubs and I sorted through art work stashed in large portfolios underneath our bed.  We selected several and began the task of buying various coloured mats and combing resale stores for large, suitable frames that cost mere dollars.  Then we immersed ourselves in the framing and hanging of a good dozen new and old pieces of art, some of which we had brought home with us from London at the beginning of the year.

I turned to the kitchen when we weren’t working on projects together; I made sour dough bread, who didn’t?

I made mason jars full of soups and meals to store in stackable freezer tubs to keep the drudgery out of daily cooking and the freezer full.

I rejoiced at only going out for groceries once every ten or so days.

We invited couples for intimate suppers on the patio

and grew closer to our neighbours.

I wrote the bible portion of VBS, complete with costumes, props and special effects and recorded it on video in our garage embracing the persistent rain for background noise.

I painted our kitchen door while Hubs hung a screen

and for the summer the cats enjoyed a third ‘outdoor vantage’ where they could bird-watch without doing harm.

We installed a new hot water heater; and survived the almost year long process of replacing our failing oven.  There was no standing around chit-chatting with the technicians though… company protocol did not encourage lingering, mask wearing was mandatory and entering someone’s house was a risky business, they needed to be gone as quickly as possible!

Hubs and I went out for coffee occasionally;

the seating inside the store had all been stacked and it was too cold to sit outside so we picnic’d in our car with a scone,

The stables were a regular haunt for me.  I was able to work around the horses safely, without my mask, no-one bothered me and the horses enjoyed the treats I brought in my pockets.

At times the winery where I worked was open; pre-ordered bottles were picked up curb-side and cheeseboards to-go were handed out in disposable containers.  Tailgating on the property was allowed and the patrons were thankful for somewhere other than their four walls to go and enjoy a shouted conversation across the ample fields.

Eventually school returned with thermometers at the gates to check temperatures and classroom spacing protocols.

Masks made it difficult to teach…

We sanitised after every period.

Some families opted to keep their students at home and continued signing into the classrooms from home.

The girls were allowed to dye their hair, a natural colour, not blue or purple;

The boys were allowed to grow theirs.  Small allowances in difficult times.

The 2020 graduates had to make do with smaller groups at creative venues like  on a lake or beach-side.

I mourned the closing of churches.  Although we attended streaming services on our laptops from various parishes around the country and joined in all the prayers we never got over the forbidden worship-in-person mandate enforced by our bishop.

The Lord showed us a new church where Christ is revered as King and voices are lifted high and loud in Worship.

For Hubs and I we got to know each other again and enjoyed our own company, the peace and quiet of country living, the excitement of murmurations

making me laugh out loud; Just a few things we both took with us from the Covid year.

I know our story is not the same for others but the Covid year was a good one for us

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