Pen-demic

  Who would have thought that the COVID pandemic, ongoing lockdowns and forced solitude would give me the chance to learn more about my family than I had known before? I’ve been told that there is almost always something good that can come out of bad, and I this case I can say it was true. Time was hanging heavy and even the company of my husband needed occasional time-outs. Cleaning and decluttering were activities I could do by myself, and I did try. But I admit I am quite easily distracted. As I was looking through things stored in the basement, I came across scrapbooks that had belonged to my Mother. Before she was taken by breast cancer, the same illness that had taken Mama, my sister-in-law, Marie, had packaged up the scrapbooks and other memorabilia and sent it to me with the note, “Now you’re the keeper of the archives.” I’d always known that the scrapbooks existed. Mama had kept them in the bottom drawer of the dresser in the spare bedroom. After Daddy died, and “The Homes...

  In March 2020, the world exploded to the news of Covid 19.  Initially, we really didn’t understand that we were truly facing  a  worldwide  pandemic, worse than SARS and  BIrd  Flu and other recent world wide health threats.   Some countries took it  ultra-seriously  and locked down their borders, trying to  prevent it from “getting in”. Others more gradually came to a realization that things needed to be done to prevent it spreading within their countries.  As time went on, the health authorities realized that  Covid 19 had probably gotten a toe hold within their countries long before the outbreak in Wuhan brought it to the world’s attention.  Some countries did nothing , hoping for “herd immunity” to develop on its own, while others put basic sanitation restrictions in place to help prevent it spread ing .     Recognizing finally that the situation was closer to the Spanish Influenza Epidemic o...