15 Days… Stop the Spread: Life Has Changed… Day 3

Life has changed in the world across the globe with just one word “Coronavirus”… and it’s making you think… am I really living in scary times… will I wake up and it’ll all be gone… is this really true? The answer… Yes, I am living in scary times… No, I’m not going to wake up and find it all gone, but I still hope… and, Yes all this is really true!

Yes Virginia… there really is a Coronavirus!

The “Coronavirus” (COVID-19) actually began back in December (2019) in Wuhan, China… at least that is about the time we know when it began. I didn’t first pay a lot of attention… as China is a long way from here… but it didn’t take long before they began talking about closing airplane travel from there to here, and later closing… checking people’s temperatures as they re-entered the United States, and quarantining people who have contracted it. I won’t go into everything about it… you are all watching the news as I am… and many of you are not working… and home with your children, who are now out of school.

As of March 19th, 2020… there are 11,329 Coronavirus cases in the United States… 161 deaths… and 108 recovered cases.

I journaled for years… actually writing by hand in a book… but then I fell off, but recently in the past week I felt I should begin writing through this pandemic that is closing in on our country. I felt the need to write my thoughts and worries… maybe it will help me… and maybe one day… when hopefully this all passes, if it ever does… I can read back on my thoughts and worries.

I have five granddaughters, ages 5 to 10… and they are all out of school. At this time, they have no real conception of all what is happening… other than they should be washing their hands several times a day. I’m happy they aren’t scared… as they are children… and it’s not their job to worry at this age… they should just be able to be children and let the adults worry… as we had our childhood… now it’s their turn.

During my childhood, it was the worry of the “cold war” of the 1960’s for me. I remember worrying about “not” having a bomb shelter as there was a neighbor who built one. My mother tells me I often talked about it… asking why we didn’t have one… and would we be able to go in theirs if a bomb hit. I have no memory of asking those questions, or even what she told me… but Mama tells me now, that she finally told me that she wanted to put a bullseye target on the top of our house… so if they sent a bomb, it would hit our house first and we’d all die together! Well, I guess that sent me into a crying mess… mama hugged me telling me she was only kidding and I guess that was the end of that! I remember… always still wanting to see that neighbors bomb shelter though… who knows maybe they didn’t really even have one! All I knew was that either the Russians or Cubans were going to send a bomb over to hit our houses. I also have no memory of practiced drills in school like some remember… so I guess it didn’t have too much impact on me… and I pray that my granddaughters won’t have fearful remembered memories of this.

We have weathered through many flu virus strains, such as the Bird Flu, Spanish Flu, Sars, H1N1, and Ebola… and if you look at all the pandemics through the years such as Polio, Yellow Fever, Smallpox and so many more that I even scared myself while reading through them. We lived through all that, well at least our ancestors did… but we’ve lived through more viruses than I could even mention… and no one was told to stay home from work or schools closed… it does puzzle me when I think back about that.

I had a childhood… and I want my grandchildren to have a childhood… although it will never be like my generation. We had freedom as children to be outside by ourselves… to go around the corner by ourselves, and actually be out of our parents sight… and gone for hours. I’m sure my mother never let me stay away like my husband tells me he did… leaving after breakfast and returning for dinner… or supper as we call it in the South!

I remember playing “kick the can” on Friday nights… coming home way after dark when hearing my mother either calling my name or blowing my grandfather’s fox horn. The neighborhood kids all knew when my mother blew granddaddy’s fox horn…  she was calling me! Granddaddy had used that fox horn to call his dogs when he went fox hunting.

This past week, my grandchildren’s freedom has been snatched away from them… their schools, libraries, parks, dance classes, swimming lessons and life as they once knew is closed… until further notice! For now, it doesn’t seem to be affecting their mindset… but how long will that last? At present, their parents and us, the grandparents, are working on homeschooling… and while it’s not their regular classroom… they will keep learning.

I’ve already become quite the homebody since my last travel trip to Georgia… but now that I’m told to stay home… I want to go out! And as much as I normally hate a grocery store… that’s where I want to go… still looking for toilet paper! But if we all keep running to the grocery store… how are we going to stop this virus? I have to confess… I am one of the guilty ones who went out more than once these past 7 days… and I blame it on the TV as the more they talk… the more they scare me… and then I go to the store. I’ve tried to keep off the news today except the very morning… now it’s going to be movies for the rest of the day and blog writing… after all my April – A to Z begins soon… and that will keep me busy every day unless something major changes that! (Check out my A to Z on April 1st)

As I enjoy crafting, as my husband will attest to… craft hiding places all over the house… I recently taught them how to make a cardboard loom to create a wall hanging… which was very popular with the 7 year old… not so much with the 5 year old though. Yesterday they enjoyed walking at the beach with cousins looking for sea creatures… keeping busy… while not being in front of a tv set. My granddaughters in Florida are busy with crafts I sent them for a birthday… they are busy little crafters today I’m told!

There has been many activities opening up on the internet from virtual field trips to doodling videos… and even making bracelets with duct tape... is there anything you can’t do with duct tape! You can never have enough colors of duct tape in the house!

I pray for our country and everyone to stay safe and healthy, and that we all weather this in a short timeframe. Enjoy this time home with your family… it’s a gift to spend time with them and hopefully we will resume back to our life once again… I pray!

Let me hear how you are keeping the kiddies busy… and yourself!

To read more 15 Days Stop the Spread: Life has Changed… click HERE.
© 2020, copyright Jeanne Bryan Insalaco; all rights reserved