Looking Back

Many of us have been looking back five years and remembering the strange world we woke up to in March of 2020. A full-blown pandemic changed everything. Looking back through my columns and articles, things come to mind that I had forgotten.

Once the reality of the situation settled in, Big Guy and I resigned ourselves to being homebound or living in the "cabin," as we called our house. I threw myself into projects to keep busy. I had long wanted to paint the interior walls of our home from boring contractor beige to rich vanilla white. So with lots of time on my hands, I set out to paint every room in our small house. It was like going to work each day. First thing in the morning, we got out the ladder, drop cloths, and paint and went to work.

We found we talked to family more often and learned to Zoom. My sister coordinated a group of like-minded women we met on our walking adventures. We Zoomed once a week. It was interesting to share our experiences living in different parts of the country, especially one friend who lived in New York City.

We got our shots as soon as they were available. It was a scramble to get the shots, but the local authorities quickly made them available. Masks became part of our daily lives. People got creative, and masks of all sorts appeared. We were glued to our televisions, waiting for the latest news and numbers. We began to hear of COVID-19 cases in our community as it crept closer and closer to home. As friends and family got COVID-19, we feared for their well-being.

One of my best memories is a community project taken on by four dynamic members of the Plantation Artist’s Guild and Gallery. We met weekly to plan our campaign. A call was sent out for photographs taken by Nassau County residents or visitors for a special exhibition called “2020 – A Look Back.” Once selected, the photos were enlarged and made ready for public display. The exhibit was designed to be portable and available for display at various venues throughout the community and county. A magazine with photos and the story behind the Look Back project was also produced.  The final collection of photographs tells the story of a resilient and vibrant community that survived with grace, perseverance, creativity, and humor.

Did we learn from our forced time out? I want to think so. We learned how to support and comfort each other and support local businesses. We dealt with loss. We survived the toilet paper crisis. We spent more time with family, read more, and watched more movies; many of us even spent more time in the kitchen.

Many of us were tested in ways we could never imagine and made it through the crisis. No one invited COVID-19 into our lives, but we adapted and may even be better for it.