Parenting Style: SURVIVALIST (Part 1)

#Covid19 #Pandemic #parentingwithanxiety #quarantine #timesuckpodcast

Full disclosure: Even though I'm vaccinated and the adults around me are too, I know that the pandemic has only died down for a while. I have two degrees in history and I know that the Plague kept cropping up for centuries after the worst of it in the Middle Ages. About a year before quarantine I was listening to #timesuckpodcast and there was an amazing episode on the Plague. Aside from a hilarious description of the Siege of Kaffa (LOAD THE GREG, AIM THE GREG, FIRE THE GREG), there was a really poignant moment where Dan Cummins (Hail Nimrod) said something about looking out your window and seeing bodies piled up and knowing that at any moment death could be coming for you. In 2019 it seemed like something so far away. It could never happen in my lifetime.

Then came the news about some illness in Wuhan, China. It was terrible, but there was no way it would ever affect me personally. Then my husband got sick from a mystery illness that December. It started with a cough, fatigue, and muscle aches. Then came the fever and what we now realize was a loss of taste and smell. One day I was getting ready to go to work and Chris told

me he needed me to stay and help him, only it wasn’t so straightforward. I called in and as the words were pouring out of my mouth, Chris hit the floor and told me he couldn’t see me. We went to the hospital the next day and the NP who saw him told us that despite several negative flu tests it was just the flu. Just the flu? No.

We made friends with a priest named Father D. and when I got Chris to the ER I asked for prayers. Within an hour he came to essentially give Chris what felt like Last Rites and to comfort me. Chris was in the hospital for eight days and we heard several possibilities (leptospirosis, typhus, Lyme disease, sepsis) but to this day we don’t have answer. My guess is that it was COVID.

That was the first time my meds were increased.

By March of 2020, things seemed normal again. Aine was doing great at school, I was recovering from endometriosis surgery, and Chris was gaining his strength back. I was doing well at work, even though my favorite student was slowly slipping deeper into his mental illness. Spring Break was approaching and with it came Spirit Week, which the teachers ALWAYS looked forward to. Then Tom Hanks, the NBA, and Disneyland happened. But it couldn‘t be real right? The word came down that we needed to be prepared to teach virtually for the two weeks after Spring Break. The way I saw it, it would be like a vacation. Aine would be in school, I would have my cats, and it would be great right?

Right?

We went to the Renaissance Faire and had a blast with friends. We hugged each other and enjoyed the day, even if it was humid AF. It was surreal to be there with people dressed as Plague doctors joking about the fact that we were there in Plague times Aine was a mermaid fairy and I was a midwife/witch.

Then our church closed.

Then Aine’s school was canceled.

Then came the scariest part—Shelter in Place.