Life Canceled

I never imagined that they would cancel school because of the Coronavirus. I remember standing on the playground after school talking with my friend, Megan, whose husband (who is a doctor) told her to go stock up on supplies at Costco and get ready for school to be canceled. I didn't think there was any chance. 

But it happened. On Sunday, March 15, the Governor closed all schools in North Carolina. It was shocking and confusing and really tough on the kids. Their world changed very quickly, and they, like everybody else were suddenly at home indefinitely. Businesses closed their doors- people would now work from home. Restaurants closed- there would be no more going out to eat. Church closed its' doors- no more worship, Bible study or Sunday School. Even the ACC basketball tournament that was IN PROGRESS suddenly stopped and canceled all games. In a matter of a few days, life as we knew it was canceled.  

I don't think I'll ever forget how unsettling it was to watch as the world shut down.

At that point, we didn't know enough about the Cornovirus which was the really scary part. Was it safe to go buy groceries at the store? I wasn't sure. So I had them delivered through Instacart. But then was it safe to bring the delivered groceries inside because someone else had touched them. Did they need to be sanitized? People just didn't know because the virus was new, and all we knew is that it was making some people very sick. Symptoms included a bad cough, fever, and difficulty breathing and people were dying from it. Thank goodness we weren't seeing any sickness in kids- just adults. I don't know how I would have handled it all if I felt kids were in any great danger.

The governor's message was to stay home. Don't go anywhere. Don't be around others. Stay six feet apart from others if you do go out. Start wearing masks.  How eerie it was to drive down the road and see no other cars around you. How sad to drive by Lacy and see it empty like a ghost town. How terrible to go to the grocery store and have other shoppers move away from you in case you had the virus. How horrible to be afraid of something unknown and to wonder if you or the ones you love would become sick? 

So we stayed home. And fears aside, it was a lovely time to stay home. March and April are such fabulous months in North Carolina that it was hard to be unhappy when the weather was so pretty and you could spend time in the home that you love. 

But still- we had to come to grips with the Coronavirus exploding around us. We were officially living in a "pandemic". And of course at that time, I had no idea how drastically life would change and how long this pandemic would go on. The months ahead would be quite difficult, but at the same time eye-opening and wonderful. Read on to see how we handled life during the Coronavirus.