Chronicles of COVID-19

Title

K.C. Cork City

Contributor

K.C.

Subject

COVID-19 (Disease)

Coverage

Ireland; Cork; 2020s:

Date

25 April 2020

Language

English

Creator

Cork Folklore Project

Rights

Cork Folklore Project

Description

GENERAL PHYSICAL LOCATION RIGHT NOW

Cork City

USUAL LOCATION

Same

Q. 1 STAGES

I was following the news of the virus from the start, but when it was only in China I felt like it didn't directly affect me. Throughout the month of January our life in Cork was unchanged from our normal routines. For me that meant keeping up with my kids' busy after school activities and volunteering in their school about once a week. We didn't travel over the winter midterm (second week of February), but that would have been around the time the virus appeared in northern Italy. It was soon after that that the first cases were reported in Ireland. I took solace that it was only a few cases associated with recent travel to Italy, they were "in the East" and we were "in the South". I still thought that perhaps it wasn't much more harmful than the flu, that the contact tracing would keep it immured control in Ireland, that Ireland as a separate landmass might offer us some added protection. The week my children went back to school after the winter midterm, my daughter mentioned that a friend and classmate of hers had been skiing in northern Italy over the midterm break. The child wasn't ill, but it was a turning point in my consciousness that this virus was going to affect our lives. Within that week stories started emerging of Italy's overwhelmed hospitals and the quarantine measures being imposed. A good friend of mine here in Cork who has family in northern Italy told me of the impact the virus was having on the small village where she grew up, and where her elderly mother and the rest of her family still lived. Her fear for them was apparent and it put a human face on the unfolding tragedy for me for the first time. It must have been the last week of February when my husband and I were discussing the need to book flights for two trips we had planned in the coming months: Spain in May and the United States in July. He was inclined to move forward with the bookings but I was hesitant. I remember discussing it with a group of friends at the time and their advice was, "Make your plans, live your life. Like can't stop for this." We never booked the tickets and one week later all of Ireland was locked down.

Q. 2 EVERYDAY ROUTINE

My husband has been working remotely since the lockdown started and a corner of our kitchen has become his office. Every weekday morning the kids' school sends an email detailing their schoolwork for the day. We have breakfast; my son (7) asks me asks me to look the daily Lego Challenge from the Facebook page for Lego Shows Ireland which has been offering a daily Lego building challenge since lockdown began. I print out whatever worksheets need printing for their schoolwork and set up computers with whatever websites they need for that day's assignments. We set up a little table in the sitting room for my son's workspace and my daughter (11) has a desk in her bedroom. She's quite focused and self-directed in her schoolwork. I spend most of the morning with my son trying to keep him on task with his schoolwork. He doesn't always complete it. He is scared by the virus and the reminder that it has taken away the structure of school when we are going the schoolwork at home causes some upset. He is happy the rest of the day doing whatever he likes. I think especially since the weather turned sunny and warm he prefers to think of it as summer holidays. My husband and I try not to discuss the news within earshot of the kids because we know how much it upsets them. We don't watch TV news. He and I read the news on our phones, usually in the morning. News sources we would read every day include The Guardian, The New York Times and The Irish Times. I also listen to National Public Radio news from the US in earphones most days when I am doing the dishes. All of our family is in the United States so naturally a lot of my concern and attention is with how the virus is unfolding there. From 12:00 onwards the rest of the day unfolds somewhat organically for us. With the schoolwork done, the kids play video games, ride their bicycles around our estate, read, do crafts, help me with cooking and baking, help me in the garden. I am usually trying to stay five minutes ahead of their boredom! Many days I lose track of time altogether and look up to discover to my surprise that it is already 6 p.m. Most evening we watch a movie together as a family after supper.
As for celebrations: My daughter's 12th birthday is next week. She would usually have a party with all of her friends. Of course it has been clear for a long time now that that is impossible this year. I was able to get her some gifts online but not all of them have arrived yet and some will probably arrive after her birthday. We will bake a cake and enjoy it together as a family and likely we will video chat with grandparents back in America. My daughter is disappointed she cannot see her friends, and even more disappointed with all of the school rituals she is missing in this final term of 6th class. Her class would have been putting together a play that they would perform for the whole school just before graduation in June. She feels a deep sense of loss for the disruption this has been to her final year of primary school and the rite of passage it is in making the move to secondary school. Because she does not go to a neighbourhood school, her classmates come from all over the city and are all planning to go to different secondary schools in September. So they are missing the final weeks of what they already knew would be a finite time together.

Q. 3 GROUPS

No Response.

Q. 4 WAYS WE TALK

"Stay safe" has definitely come into written and spoken communications as an all-purpose sign off. "When things return to normal" seems to be the phrase we use to imagine the future beyond lockdown and it captures how indefinite this period of suspended normal life feels. When my son tries to imagine the future of getting back to the US to visit family, going back to school, he says "after coronavirus." When lockdown first started my daughter made a bunch of window greetings in our front window: "Stay Cool. Smile. Be Happy." She also chalked a big rainbow on the footpath in front of our house. A few other neighbours have done similar things and they have thanked us as they walk by for giving them something cheerful to look at. Our relationships with our neighbours have deepened over this time. Sometimes we chat from a distance when we encounter one another on a walk. There is plenty of messaging back and forth via text and leaving one another little gifts in the driveway: dishwasher tabs when someone runs out before their next expected grocery delivery, sourdough starter, plant seedlings, etc. What’s App groups of parents of my kids' classmates have blossomed with jokes and genuine moral support for one another. We've used Zoom to connect with friends near and abroad, for virtual book clubs and the like. Neither of my kids particularly enjoys the video get-togethers. They say they'd much rather see people in person or not at all. I have certain ambivalence about it as well. It's no replacement for the in-person connections we are sorely missing.

Q. 5 COMMUNITY RESPONSE

From our immediate neighbourhood it looks like everyone has been following the guidelines for social distancing. There are a few common green spaces here which more people use in the fine weather, but everyone appears to be considerate of giving everyone else plenty of space. I've enjoyed cycling through town with so many fewer cars on the roads. A walk into the city centre recently surprised me: there were instances of people congregating there that I found concerning. Over five weeks into lockdown and with no end in sight, it seems there is a general state of restlessness (from chatter online I've seen), but I think the overall response in Ireland to the crisis has been good. Compared to the US where the rest of my family is and where a public health crisis has become so politicized that the government response depends on where you live. I'm grateful we're not living in the US right now but concerned for my family and friends that are there. The misinformation and conspiracy theories going around about the virus concern me. Before the schools closed down, a friend of mine here in Cork who is Chinese said her son was being bullied at school by kids who were accusing him of spreading the virus.

Q. 6 THOUGHTS AND PREOCCUPATIONS

I'm trying to imagine how we will return to "normal" and all the things we used to do in shared spaces and in proximity to other people: school, work, leisure activities, etc. We have an immune compromised person in our household so just sending the kids back into school for them to potentially bring the virus home frightens me. I want their lives to return to normal as soon as possible but I can't see how that can happen before a vaccine is available to us.
I am worried about my aged parents in the US. They are quite isolated and dealing with complicated long term health conditions. I keep hoping they will make it through this and I can see them again as soon as possible.

Q. 7 SIMILARITY TO PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE

No Response.

Q. 8 CHALLENGES AND COPING

Kids bickering. A small living space that is cluttered with every room and surface being now used for multiple purposes. Getting food and gardening supplies (ordering everything online and waiting on deliveries for days and weeks). Enforcing some routine and structure on the day- especially for my kids when all I want is to distract myself with long periods of reading or pulling weeds in the garden.

Q. 9 THE FUTURE

I hope it changes the way we use resources and encourages a new paradigm of intentional regrowth. I hope it causes countries and cultures to question the costs of globalism, its consumption of natural resources for manufacturing. Hopefully "retail therapy" will be replaced with other forms of connection people have been able to discover during this time. With the understanding that all the ecological conditions that brought about this virus will continue to create the conditions for future virus transmissions from animals to people, countries should prioritise their health care services so that they are better able to respond to future pandemics.

Q. 10 IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE THAT SPRINGS TO MIND?

Thank you for offering this. I appreciate the opportunity to reflect on the last several weeks when I've been more or less living in the moment. I am eager to read other people's responses to these questions.

Q. 11 IN A NUTSHELL

It makes life feel more tenuous. I feel grateful for the people in my life. I wonder what kind of a world my children will see in their lifetimes if something like this is now possible. I hope that guiding them through this crisis and trying to protect their mental health in the process gives them some solid coping skills for whatever challenges await them over the rest of the 21st century. I feel like our world just got a lot smaller. Globally we're all connected by this contagion, and at the same time we've been living within a 2km radius of our house for several weeks. We have focused on the basics: food, sleep, togetherness. Beyond that nothing else feels relevant.

age

36-50

gender

Female