How y’all doing? is a question all of us should be asking these days. We’re all on the same boat, like sailors on an aircraft carrier, or passengers on a cruise liner sailing through troubled waters.
How are you doing, and what are you doing to pass the time it’s going to take to get through this? Are you and your husband, wife or partner getting along, or getting on each others’ nerves?
Are you playing games (in a good sense ) with each other? Going for walks in the hood? Drives in the car, like those ritualistic Sunday drives my father took my mother and and me on once upon a time in western Massachusetts.
Are you staying home and leaving get togethers to your owned devices?
My wife, Donna, and I had a virtual family meeting a few nights ago. Donna’s side of the family comprised the crew: Her sister, niece, grandniece and nephew in southern California. Her brother and our nephew in Santa Cruz. Our nephew and niece and their daughter and boyfriend in Connecticut. And Donna’s brother and his wife in Amherst.
Maybe I’ll try to get my side of the family together like this. I know my cousin Matt in Northampton would love to be the first mate on this motley crew. Skype, Zoom and Portal – words not in my vocabulary until recently – are means to an end now, as we’re all being asked to stay apart, but come together like this. Safely.
Among the positive effects of this isolation, at least for me, is the time it has given me to think, and appreciate what I had been taking for granted. BC. Before Corona. I’ve been reading a lot, more than ever. I walk more than two miles every day. I cook.
And I’ve been think about Mike Y, a physical therapist at the nursing home where my mother was taken care of before she died two years ago. Donna and I really like Mike, and so did my mom. Whenever we crossed paths with him in the hall he gave mom a big hug. Then he hugged Donna and me.
I’ve been thinking about what Mike is doing these days. When hugging in nursing homes is taboo. I emailed him yesterday morning to ask how he’s doing. But I haven’t heard back from him.
Terrence McCarthy , an Easthampton native, is a writer who lives in North Carolina.