This last Saturday was a gorgeous day. Last minute, i said to my husband, "Why don't we ride our bikes to DC?" (We live in Maryland, just over the district line). So we loaded up with water and food and my phone with a map, and rode our bikes all the way downtown on bike paths! No cars anywhere. We rode the (Somewhat) new Anacostia River Walk trail--8 miles through Southeast DC and it was lovely. 18 miles in total for the ride. It was so great to be outside and seeing sights!. Lots of people were outside riding too, most without masks and it felt okay since it now appears it's impossible to get the virus if you're vaccinated (Which we are) and you just pass someone on the street.. Everyone was in a good mood. We stopped at a small park in DC on Capitol Hill to rest and there were lots of small groups of people congregating in the park, mostly unmasked too. It was so nice to see people gathering and feel like it was okay, not scary. It really felt like things were slowly returning to normal.. Then we rode our bikes to Union station to get the Metro home--here's the photo. Everything closed! I couldn't believe it. Usually Union Station is hopping at 3PM on a Saturday. But all the restaurants and stores were closed, even the lights were off. A lot of the shops looked like they'd gone out of business too. I guess some parts of DC haven't opened yet! I suspect in many places the "return" to normal is going to be rough. It's not just about taking our masks off and being able to go out, but making sure that people have jobs and places to live. I think it's going to be a long haul. I don't think we're out of the woods at all. But for a few hours, last Saturday, it felt like we were--and that was a great relief.
May 19, 2021
My mom died this week. She didn't die of COVID, but she died *with* it. But she was still forced to die alone. Her husband of 46 years is devastated. He was able to spend 15 minutes with her earlier in the day in full PPE. He wasn't supposed to touch her, but he snuck his hand in anyway. And those lines on the picture are because we had to watch on FaceTime and take a screenshot. You hear about these lonely deaths. But you don't truly understand the depth of it until your family experiences it. It's so complicated, and adds a layer of grief on top of what's already an unimaginable loss. We will never recover from this.
April 4, 2021