Oh, Terry, this brought tears to my eyes. I believe, to some degree or another, we are all wondering the same. The future is so damn hazy.
Captain Argentina and I typically go to Manhattan each fall but we skipped last year due to his sight issues caused by a mini-stroke. We were looking forward to going in 2020. Now, we wonder if we’ll ever see Manhattan again.
Several times a year, we usually go to a lakeside town 2-hours south of us called Mount Dora. It’s our getaway spot. We haven’t been since April 2019. Again, we wonder if we’ll ever go again.
Reading the words about your mother and her home led me to recall the Captain’s mother’s apartment in New Jersey. We used to stay with her and take the train to Manhattan each morning. Her tiny apartment was so warm and welcoming — just as she was. I wrote about it here:
When she moved to South Florida with her daughter a few years back, we mourned the loss of Apartment 308 and our visits and all the food she cooked whenever we were there. Those rituals were gone forever and it would be a short time later that we lost her, too.
Now, with this whole virus debacle, who knows what rituals will survive? Who knows what normal will become?
Thank you for this, Terry. I’ve read many pieces about the effects this pandemic will have in the long run, but don’t believe I’ve read anything about the long-term loss of our rituals and habits.
