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by Nancy Griesinger, 04/30/2020, Traverse City, MI

Adult Category


This “stay at home” lifestyle is almost the same as it was before corona. We were ordering groceries from the stores and having them delivered because we were too weak to walk the aisles after recent heart surgery.

So the adjustment to a different life has not bothered us. The truth is, we rather enjoy the quiet of fewer people around us, and fewer cars buzzing by. We are the lucky ones, retired from our jobs, with money enough to get by, healthy enough to take daily walks and time enough to read and watch television without feeling guilty.

We have our downtime when we think about our son who cannot see his first grandchild. another son who must wave to his granddaughter from the driveway instead of holding her on his lap. We have family members with what is considered “non-essential” businesses living with the acute fear of losing their homes.

We talk about those long ago freedoms we enjoyed and end up saying how grateful we are for the life we’ve lived. Freedoms we took for granted.
The atmosphere in our house is like the atmosphere when one has lost a close friend. A quiet sadness hangs around us. We go on, but without the parties and games, dancing and laughter, good food, beer, and jokes. Late evenings with family over a fragrant bowl of bean soup and cornbread “like Mama used to fix.”  .Conversations with buddies about the next cruise we would take or festival we would attend. So many canceled for now and forever.

It is as if someone close to us has passed away, mysteriously in the middle of February 2020.