Just at the beginning of the lockdown, at the beginning of March, when the government announced that we would be teaching from home, it was a huge change in the minds and lives of everybody.

My story starts with an “almost” apology. Six months ago, we chopped down a massive tree. It was an invasive, exotic tree that bullied all possibility of a garden out of our new apartment’s little patch of earth. Not a way to make friends in the apartment block.

My first step was to call all my beloved friends and relatives, to be sure they were okay and to know how they were coping with this situation. Then, my bedroom was gradually transformed into an office and a gym. My family and I were working and studying from home.

It was so hard for me to stay in the house,
All of my energy inside of me,
It was so full and so tight,
My walls almost tipped over!

Monday, March 16, 12 noon: Schools are closed, shelves are empty, people are hoarding flu supplies, and everyone is out of toilet paper. When the shelter-in-place order comes down, I call my son and tell him it’s time to choose. Gabe has been enjoying his first year in college in Portland and was considering riding out this whole coronavirus thing on campus.

There’s a ray of sun that visits me every afternoon through one of the windows of my office, at home. I discovered it during the first week of the lockdown.

Now, I can’t imagine my life without the sunshine of these children coming to my room through my notebook screen, every morning.

My brother Omar was working for Amazon delivering packages,. He knew he was at risk of contagion, so he told my mom at the end of March that he would not visit her until COVID was over. My mom did not like it, but she knew it was for her protection.

Babies are born anyway
Life pushed forth
even with the rest of humanity
having ground to a halt

Learning to believe, trust, or ignore news headlines is something that common sense can’t digest fast enough. Feeling isolated and restricted isn’t healthy. Grieving families call me to request flowers to represent their presence at funeral services that they are forced to avoid.

“Time is out of joint,” and I am experiencing time differently. Now, I don’t believe that I, or any of us, can truly live in the present. I think that we simultaneously live in the past, present, and future. My past, what I have done and experienced and learned, provides the framework, the lens, through which I view the present.

At first, not only me but a lot of people thought, “This is not that serious,” and me and my friends were even joking about it. But day by day, I started to realize that the situation is getting worse and if everyone thought the way I thought, it would result a chaos.

The world tilted. One day I was telling my husband, “Don’t worry if other people on BART are wearing masks, just wash your hands.” Shortly after, the County orders came out to cover your face when going outside.

So let’s all act responsibly
‘Til a vaccine’s been perfected,
For the vulnerable among us
Have the right to be protected.

I was moving full tilt in one direction and surprise! I learned I must
immediately surrender to a new reality.

Our town is small, but it’s a very tight community. One woman made masks and put them on her front porch so that people could come and get them.

Our baby sister, Sherill, has been rushed to the hospital. As her legal guardian, I immediately think to go there. Debbie reminds me, “Freda, we can’t go there.” Right, no one is allowed! The hospital is restricting visitors.

People around our neighborhood started becoming fussy around the doctor. We were worried not only about him, but about his grandmother. Slowly people started losing their minds. There were threats written on the wall of his house.

I monitored the Facebook groups for airline employees. Flight attendants’ posts from Jet Blue, United, Southwest, Delta, American. Not feeling well. Sick. Trying to get tested. Exposed. Quarantined in hotels. Alone.

With the help of YouTube, I sharpened my skills to get ready to make my first pattern after a break of 17 years. The whole process was very nostalgic, from fixing the fabric in the hoop, to drawing the pattern.