Ailantha
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

The Week That Was

3/8/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture

​Dear well-loved and appreciated readers,
I’m wondering if I might ask you favor.
If you’ve read and enjoyed either of my books, 
Picture
...would you leave a review – just a sentence or two would do – on Amazon and/or Goodreads?
Here are the links:
For Amazon:

"Equal and Opposite Reactions":  http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
"Hail Mary":  https://www.amzn.com/1684334888

For Goodreads: 
"Equal and Opposite Reactions": https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35521059-equal-and-opposite-reactions
"Hail Mary":
 www.goodreads.com/book/show/53468697-hail-mary

​
   Online reviews are the best kind of word-of-mouth for helping an author’s book make it in the world and a few words from you would be much appreciated.
    Thanks so much, and enjoy today’s Ailantha!
​

​THE WEEK THAT WAS

Picture
     It no doubt hit weeks earlier for some Americans and that much later for others depending on the region of the country in which they lived, but for me - and I expect for Ohioans generally - the second week of March, 2020, was the week when the reality of the COVID-19 epidemic swept in and changed life as I used to know it.
     Prior to that week I'd felt the undercurrents of anxiety that were all around: We'd been warned that the epidemic was coming, approaching like an invading army, but we weren't sure exactly when it would really happen, how bad it would be, or what we should be doing in the meantime, other than stocking up on cleaning supplies and disinfectants,

Picture
...and going to town on the germ-killing,
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
...and hand sanitizing.
Picture
Picture
      Still, I cancelled with great disappointment my flight, hotel reservations, car rental  and RSVP for my son-in-law's niece's March 13 quinceañera in Arizona,
Picture
...and wondered if I was being overly cautious and just a tad paranoid about the whole coronavirus thing. 
     I had a piano recital, for which  my students had been preparing for half a year, scheduled for March 19,
Picture
​ ...and the unthinkable idea of cancelling our recital even started poking around the edges of my brain.  
      I even wondered if I should discontinue my daily visits to my 99-year-mother in the memory care unit of the Sunrise senior care facility.
Picture
      In retrospect, I think that back then it was so unthinkable that the country was actually in the grip of a deadly wildfire epidemic that I couldn't in my mind decipher caution from paranoia. I, for one, needed knowledge, however frightening and troubling  that knowledge might be. And I needed to be told what to do so I could bring myself do what needed to be done, whatever that might be.
      All the answers came the following week, the week of March 9, 2020, when the COVID-19 epidemic officially arrived in Ohio. 
     Monday, March 9, was the last time I fetched my mother at Sunrise to take her out to eat. (I recall that at the sign-out desk there was a pen-sanitizer. 
How optimistically naïve we were back then to think such a little gizmo as this:
Picture
...would protect us from this: )
Picture
     I was in truth nervous about taking my mom to a restaurant - and even going myself - but the Sunrise staff gave permission, and my mom was craving "a really good hamburger," as she put it. So I took her out to the LongHorn Steakhouse,
Picture
...where we did, in fact, split a really good burger followed by a most memorable apple dumpling,
Picture
...while I angsted the whole time about us catching the coronavirus.
     That day, Monday, March 9, was the last time in her life that my mom was at a restaurant. It was also the last time I was at a restaurant.
      The following day, Tuesday, March 10, I composed a notification which I handed out to the parents of my piano students ― I teach ―used to teach― in-home lessons ― asking them to please clean their piano keys and to go over them with a disinfectant wipe before my arrival and also to make sure that their children washed their hands immediately before their lessons.
      One of the mothers read my note and laughed. "Are you freaking out over this coronavirus thing?" she asked.
          I had to admit that I kind of was. 
​        The next day, 
Wednesday, March 11, our Governor Mike Dewine came on the air and announced that starting the following week all schools in Ohio would be closed for a month.
Picture
        That day was the last day I taught an in-person piano lesson. I cancelled all lessons until further notice. And I cancelled our piano recital. 
         Friday, March 13, was the last time I saw my mother in person for months,
Picture
...until summer when she turned one-hundred and when weekly half-hour,12-feet apart outdoor visits would be allowed,
Picture
...followed, in autumn, by brief weekly indoor visits,
Picture
...which ended after my final end-of-life visit.
Picture
   Saturday, March 14, all non-essential public venues in Ohio were closed, senior care facilities no longer allowed public visitation, and the state was put under quarantine, we its citizens admonished by our Governor and Public Health Director to stay inside  our houses and "shelter in place" for our safety. 
Picture
     That was the day when we knew without a doubt that the invasion had begun.    
      And that beginning marked the end of a week that I will never forget.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    "Equal And Opposite Reactions"
     by Patti Liszkay
    Buy it on Amazon:

    http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa
    Picture
    ​"Hail Mary"
    by Patti Liszkay
    Buy it on Amazon:

    https://www.amzn.com/1684334888
    Picture
    "Tropical Depression" 
    by Patti Liszkay
    ​Buy it on Amazon:   
    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTPN7NYY

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013

    RSS Feed

    I am a traveler just visiting this planet and reporting various and sundry observations,
    hopefully of interest to my fellow travelers.

    Categories

    All


























































































  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact