Saturday, March 14, 2020 was the day pandemic life started for me. We were boarding a plane to fly home from a spring break week in Florida. I already knew I wasn’t going back to work on Monday and I was traveling home with the extra toilet paper we had bought for our cottage. Normally, I would leave the extras behind but by all accounts on social media I wasn’t going to find any toilet paper in the grocery store when I got home. Those accounts were true, I couldn’t find it for weeks.
The Pittsburgh airport was eerily quiet and practically deserted when we landed. We made our way easily through the airport. We gathered our suitcases and headed to retrieve our car to make the three hour drive home. We haven’t been in an airport since.
We had an early flight so we were going to need to stop for lunch on the way home. We often like to find local restaurants when we travel so I started searching the GPS. We decided on a burger place not too far from the highway. That was the last restaurant we visited until sometime in the summer of 2020.
As we pulled into the parking spot at the restaurant my phone started to ring. It was Son Two calling from the west coast. He was to be married in 8 weeks and was due to come home the next week for his bride’s wedding shower. I would be gathering with my sisters and nieces for the shower and the guys would be playing golf. The shower was cancelled, the wedding postponed to October but then rescheduled to June with only immediate family.
These are just a few of the ways life has been altered since Saturday, March 14, 2020. It’s been a year today since we started this pandemic life. While there have been many losses this year there have been blessings too. We had a beautiful intimate wedding in June. Our immediate family of six has remained healthy. We regularly connect with friends and family through video chats. We have learned to appreciate time together with others. We’ve learned the people are more important than the traditions of holidays. We’ve slowed down, taken more walks and played lots of games. Most importantly, we’ve grown to appreciate things we used to take for granted.
I’m hoping Day 14 #SOL22 on Monday, March 14, 2022 tells a story of post-pandemic life gratitude and appreciation.
Teaching from an Empty Nest 