London in Springtime? Not So Fast

This Is Beyond… The Effects of COVID-19 Get Personal By Debbra Dunning Brouillette

All I keep thinking is, “This is beyond…” Beyond what I’ve experienced thus far in my lifetime.

My mid-size midwestern city of Evansville, Indiana, has just announced all restaurants and bars will be closed, except for take-out or delivery. My 89-year-old mother’s assisted living facility will close to outside visitors as of tomorrow. I was able to visit with her in person for the last time until no one knows when. She does have an Echo Spot with Alexa, so I can call her on it, and she and I can see each other, which should help. She has dementia, so I am hoping she will adjust to not seeing me in person several times a week. I am also depending on the staff members, who I know will be overworked and stressed, to watch over her even more closely.

I haven’t traveled out of the state of Indiana since last November when I flew to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for a pre-conference press trip before attending the IFWTWA conference in Santa Fe. I was really looking forward to a press trip to Brownsville, Texas, in early April, followed by another trip in early May to San Juan, Puerto Rico. I was excited to have been selected to be part of a press trip to Vieques, an island off Puerto Rico, before attending the NATJA (North American Travel Journalists Association) conference in San Juan. All of that is now postponed until further notice.

Because of a novel coronavirus—COVID-19, as it’s been labeled by WHO (World Health Organization) —the world as we know it has been turned topsyturvy.

Isla de Vieques

I am used to working from home on my laptop, and I will use this time of at least modified self-quarantine to catch up on my writing. There are articles and blog posts I need to write. There are many things I can do to use this unexpected and unwelcome period of uncertainty in a productive way. I pray that, in time, we can all return to a semblance of normality, but I expect this will be a new normal.

“This, too, shall pass,” is something I cling to, and I have faith that it will. I also have hope that we can emerge from this pandemic better for having gone through it. Maybe we’ll appreciate the simple things of life that, especially in America, we’ve taken so much for granted.

I can’t wait until I can travel again—until I can experience new destinations and share them with others through my words and photos. In the meantime, I pray my mother and all others who may be vulnerable to ha ving serious c o m p l i c a t i o n s should the COVID-19 vir us invade their body wil l remain protected and healthy.