Angelina's Garden

Slice of Life 2020: Day 15

Scratch, scratch, scratch.

That is the sound my pencil made Thursday as I crossed out every single event on my calendar. The SAT exam my junior had been prepping for, gone. Dinner out with my daughter and her fiance, gone. Yoga Saturday at 10 am, gone. Church on Sunday, gone. Going to work next week, gone. Groceries at the grocery store, gone!

On Thursday everything changed.

I changed.

I had to stop and catch my breath, say a prayer and calm down. There were too many news reports, too many questions and there was too much uncertainty.

My oldest kids were the most stressed. They were quite aware of what this all meant. Questions came up like: Will I be able to get a job? Will I have to go back to school? What if granddad gets this? Can you and dad survive because ya’ll are old?

All six of us ate dinner and talked as it rained outside. We talked about the Corona virus, social distancing, and cancellations. My husband and I tried to help everyone calm down, but we ourselves were overwhelmed with what lay ahead. We had questions like: Will the economy continue to spiral downward? What if we all get this at the same time? Will our parents be okay? Can we all live in this house forever?

Eventually we lightened up and shared stories of things we’d seen like empty toilet paper shelves. That helped. Stupid jokes were told. That helped too.

Being together was what we needed.

After supper and cleanup, my grown daughter placed a cool face mask over my aging skin. Ah! That was the most wonderful experience after an excruciatingly stressful week. I knew then that being together, we would get through this.

I took a couple of days off from slicing to get grounded again. I needed to focus on prayer and my family for a couple of days. These big kids needed to see that they are strong and can face life’s challenges with the firm conviction that God is in control.

Now, we go forward one day at a time.