No end in sight

 

Almost six months of Covid and no end in sight. The other day John commented that our lives had not changed much as a result of this virus. His comment made me pause and reflect on the past six months.

The first impact was cancellation of our planned trip to Greece. It seemed likely that we would not see our extended family in Greece again. After that our daily lives changed dramatically. 

Since relocating to Langley we had slowly been integrating into the community by attending fitness classes and regular visits to the weight room at our local community centre. Around mid-March both the community centre and the library closed. We lost social contact with our new acquaintances and the pleasure of regular browsing through library shelves.

John had become an active Hospice volunteer again and was looking forward to providing assistance to community members who were nearing the end of life. The Hospice Association was forced to cancel its contacts with patients.

I was volunteering at the Hospital Auxiliary thrift store for two afternoons each week but the store was among businesses that were deemed non-essential and was closed. 

Coffee shops and restaurants were forced to offer takeout service only so there were no more leisurely visits while enjoying the aroma and flavors of our favorite menu items.

We came to admire Dr. Bonnie Henry and expected that the measures she put in place would protect us. Hand washing and physical distancing became our new way of life as our social sphere shrunk to just the two of us. 

There were positive impacts from these past six months. As a result of no shopping, no eating out and no driving we spent less money on non-essentials and we enjoyed long walks every day. We explored our neighborhood, engaged ourselves in conversations that might not have taken place otherwise and returned home feeling energized. In lieu of purchased goodies there were home baked loaves of banana bread and cookies as well as delicious roasted vegetables and huge pots of healthy soup. Several paintings were also successfully completed

A scarey reminder of the virus happened about one month ago when John experienced extreme pain in his back and was unable to move. I called an ambulance and they whisked him away to the hospital. Due to Covid restrictions I was not able to be with him. We only have one phone so he could not call me. It was an excruciating eight hours later when I received a call from the hospital to pick him up. He had suffered a rare reaction to an antibiotic for a bladder infection. I couldn't stop thinking about the possibility that he could be hospitalized and I would never see him again.

So...on careful reflection...John's comment about our lives not changing with Covid could not be further from the truth!