It didn't take long to go from normal life on Tuesday (the day of Kam's mission call) to somewhat different on Wednesday to completely different on Friday and then to very personal on Sunday. It was amazing how quickly life as we know it has altered. These are weird times. It feels very post 9/11 but as if 9/11 hasn't happened yet and we are just waiting. The last 6 months haven't been great at helping me with my ANXIETY and now this! Yikes.
I am starting this quasi-journal on my blog. I will be starting with Saturday (3-14-20) as Day 1...the first day that staying home and social distancing was recommended. Although our coronavirus experience started a few days earlier. On Tuesday 3-10-20 (the day that Kameron got his mission call) Tyler was called into several meetings at work. These meetings were all about what his company was going to do to deal with the coming COVID-19 crisis. By that afternoon everyone in his department who COULD work from home was REQUESTED to do so for the next two weeks. I was happy about this because Tyler does have the ability to do his job from home and he is part of the compromised immune system at-risk group. He has the double whammy of being both a Type 1 diabetic and has cardiovascular disease. So many people in his office (older coworkers) come into work sick as dogs and cough all over everyone. They are from my parents generation of you come to work no matter what! They have a hard time with the new line of thought that if you are sick your boss would PREFER that you stay at home and not infect all of the other employees. So needless to say I was happy that Tyler had this option. We also decided that Tyler would not go to church on Sunday. He is a primary teacher. Enough said.
On Wednesday (3-11-20) Tyler worked a full day from our house. The kids were still in school and Kameron was working. Okay...we could deal with that. I made a run to Costco and Walmart to further stock up. We had stocked up the week before but we thought of a few more things that we might need. I am so glad that I did. I got everything that we needed. This is what Walmart looked like that day in the paper products aisle. I was so glad that I already had TP, paper towels, water, and cleaning supplies.
My cousin Paul was texting me about his area stores being wiped out as I was literally standing in the TP aisle in my local store. I sent him this picture! That's when things started to feel eerie. That day the LDS church made the decision that new missionaries would do online training from home and not go to the MTC. Hopefully by July 1st things will be back to normal or at least normal-ish so that Kam gets to actually go to the Provo MTC. Tyler really wants him to have that MTC experience. We were extra grateful that Kam doesn't leave until July! The church also announced that General Conference would be broadcast on TV and online but no members of the public would be admitted.
Thursday (3-12-20) Tyler had multiple online/skype meetings and had to get out of his lounge wear and into his business attire. Ha ha! Still nothing too weird although worry about the coronavirus spreading from Seattle to our area had amped up and the school board and health department were trying to figure out what to do. My friend Sarah, who is a pediatrician, and not an alarmist was ALARMED at our situation and was encouraging social distancing, taking this seriously, and preparing for the schools to close. Sarah has been on the front lines of COVID-19 and on a committee of doctors working on this health crisis since the first case in WA. By that afternoon local doctors and pediatricians were asking the schools to close but the school board still said no. By Thursday evening Tyler and I made the decision to not send Bryn to school on Friday. We didn't want to send Ailey either but she had multiple tests that day. We anxiously watched the news for school closures. None came. Church was cancelled indefinitely. That was craziness. No church...home church for who knows how long? I mean we all knew something would happen. We weren't doing Come Follow Me and being a home-centered church for nothing but when it actually happened it was jarring. The LDS church took a lot of jabs in the press here in WA and I'm sure everywhere else about having a supposed *lack* of faith. We became even more grateful for a living prophet. Seminary cancelled that night indefinitely.
On Friday (3-13-20) Bryn stayed home and Ailey went to school. Kam's work (he is a cook at an assisted living facility) closed the doors to anyone not direct family of the residents and began taking employees temperatures as they came in the door. Our church quickly set in motion a plan for taking care of our ward. Ministering brothers and sisters were to check on their families and see what their situations and needs were. It was very comforting to be contacted multiple times by multiple people to check on our family and to make sure that we had needed supplies as we were doing the same thing for other families.
Some schools around the country began to close. The Spokane Regional Health District held a press conference saying that they would NOT close the schools. Tyler and I were enraged. Kids and their families were being put in harm's way. We made the decision to pull our kids out of school. We are a high risk family. Tyler's health must come first. A few hours later right before school got out we received a text from Ailey saying that school was now cancelled for 6 weeks! What?! Most of the schools that were closing around the USA were closing for two weeks. That was pretty sobering. My cousin texted from Portland to say that their schools were closing for 4 weeks. Things were feeling very serious very quickly. I am grateful that our WA Governor (who I normally greatly dislike) made the call for whole state. It needed to be done and our local health district was not doing what was in the best interest of our children and our community. They even went further to say that they would hold school for one more day on MONDAY as a transition time for families and teachers. WHAT?? According to Sarah, my doctor friend, that was INSANITY. She encouraged everyone to email the superintendent. It did nothing. We told our kids that they would not be going to school on Monday. Bryn took the news okay although she loves school, her friends, and especially her teacher. Her teacher is currently battling cancer and shouldn't be at school anyway. Ailey took the news badly. She fought us tooth and nail to go to school on Monday. She was furious. She wanted to see her friends. She was convinced that she would miss out on the study materials and things that she would need for the next six weeks. It was a long night of anger and tears.
Tyler's work also made the decision that ALL nonessential workers...all those except the ones keeping power up and running...were REQUIRED to stay home. We were once again super appreciative that Tyler can do his job from home and can keep earning a paycheck. It is heartbreaking for all those who cannot.
We took the social distancing advice to heart and stayed home on Friday night. Friday night is our weekly date night and truly our favorite night of the week. It was strange and life seemed to be getting stranger by the minute.
The Governor also announced that groups larger than 250 could no longer meet. Less that 24 hours after the LDS church made the decision to not hold church the other churches made the same decision. Many LDS temples had closed by that time or were narrowing down their hours and appointments. Stake baptisms were cancelled and one of my little primary kids was scheduled to be baptized the next morning so we were scrambling to figure out how that was going to happen. (It did.) Not being able to attend church, the temple, Conference, and other gatherings was definitely sobering.
And if things weren't depressing enough...it started to snow. We were supposed to get quite a bad storm. Several inches of snow and high winds. We know all to well what happens here in the PNW during wind storms...power outages...some very lengthy. We went out and bought another propane tank and prepped our generator for use if needed. Then the snow started falling and the wind started blowing but thankfully our power stayed on.
0 comments:
Post a Comment