Diary 3/21/20

Spring arrived with a morning dusting of snow. From a high in the sixties yesterday it dropped to the thirties today. Along with that came the first Covid-19 case in our country last night. Now nobody except vetted staff and service people can come onto our campus at all. If I decided to go to my daughter’s house in her neighborhood near Cleveland, I wouldn’t be able to return to Kendal. My daughter and I already presumed it would come to this.

She and her husband and their son are driving back from Austin, Texas as I write. Two weeks ago, they had taken the chance to go see Max’s grandmother who was staying at her daughter’s house in Austin before she returned to Bosnia. Now, because she is a new American citizen, his grandmother has chosen to stay here with her daughter and avoid being alone in her apartment in Sarajevo. Besides, if you think the American healthcare system has issues, try Bosnia’s.

 Likely, I will choose to remain here at Kendal. Just like everybody else, I can’t hug or hold my beloveds for some unknown period of time. We do have the option to be together if things change, but right now it seems easier and safer all around if I stay here. The rapidity with which we have all been adjusting to the new normal is astounding.

I have been busy staying in contact with everyone near and far. Friends from Kendalites living in cottages and apartments, friends from afar and of old, and my extended family are all touching in. Thank goodness this crisis has come about in the era of cyberspace. I feel very cared for and not at all forgotten. I started to read from The Overstory (see former blog) to my blind friend down the hall, listened to a radio program with a friend who lives down the other way, and am clerking Quaker meeting tomorrow morning (even though I not a formal Quaker member) because I am able and more than willing to focus for the seven of us here who will gather in the Care Center.

Yesterday I was serenaded by two friends. Room numbers were posted next to our windows from the outside so that other residents could stop by and window chat. I wrote a song to add to their repertoire. Our version of “Let it Be” could have used some help. Happy spring to you and yours no matter what else is going on around you.

Covid-19 Song: We Must Build a New Way
(to the tune of Sweet Betsy from Pike.
Oh do you remember Sweet Betsky from Pike?
Who crossed the wide prairie with her lover, Ike,
With two yoke of oxen, a big yeller dog,
an old Shaghai rooster and an old spotted hog.
Chorus:
Singin’ Oorally, oorally, oorally ay, Singin’ oorally, oorally, oorally ay.)

In two thousand and twenty comes Covid-19
Across the whole planet on droplets unseen.
Many thousands have sickened, and thousands have died,
The infection has quickened, a pandemic worldwide.

Chorus: Let us rally together, let us rally today,
For a healthier world, we must build a new way.

Long before humans the virus was here
A model for change not a model for fear
Adapting forever as a way to survive
We can all do the same, so we all learn to thrive.

Chorus: Let us rally together, let us rally today,
For a healthier world we must build a new way.

We can’t gather for work we can’t gather for play.
We are learning to live staying six feet away.
If you just lost your job, with no money to pay
How will you manage to go on day to day?

Some leaders are clueless, and some have been strong
Each country is struggling to fix what is wrong.
The life we just lost while denial held sway
It is time that we rally to build a new way.

Chorus: Let us rally together, let us rally today,
For a healthier world we must build a new way.

This song has no ending, it is just the start.
We still have our heads and our hands and our hearts.
We all are connected, now that much is clear,
Let’s work hard together, let’s overcome fear.

Chorus: Let us rally together, let us rally today,
For a healthier world we must build a new way.