Disappointment

Just a little past the one-year mark since the first death here in the United States, we are rapidly pushing towards 500,000 – that’s half a million – deaths due to SARS-CoV-2. For every family and community who has lost a loved one, the number might as well be infinite. For the rest of us, it remains almost unimaginable.

But what has been quite real even without the ultimate loss are the almost daily disappointments. For us, it has been the inability to spend time with our children and grandchildren. Still, we take great solace in the fact that we are still able to “see” them, albeit electronically, quite frequently. But for them, the disappointments are far more real.

First there was last summer, when all plans for camps were suspended, including “Camp Nana Sabba.” Then, although all the children all returned to school at least part-time, the fall came and went without a basketball season for our oldest grandson. As a junior and third year member of the Maimonides team this year, he would have surely had a lot more time on the court. But it was simply not meant to be. Piano lessons were also not to be.

Our younger daughter and her husband had long been planning a 20^th wedding anniversary trip to Hawaii in December, which had to be cancelled.

Two of our granddaughters, cousins who are now 15 and 14 years of age, had been planning to run a small day camp program for 7-8 younger children during this February school break. The program was to take place in the large, open garage of one of our long-time Sharon friends, in the hopes that the weather would not be prohibitively cold. They spent many hours planning activities and shopping for supplies, and I have to say we were incredibly proud of them for their creative thoughts and hard work. And then, at the end of last week came the news of a few cases of Covid in the community, and it became clear that the plans had to be cancelled.

As they have been asked to do again and again this past year, they have taken this in stride. I wish I could be as patient and understanding. Instead, I find myself hopelessly frustrated and incredibly sad, and while there is simply no solution to this but acceptance, it is hard not to wonder if our country could have handled all of this a lot better than we have.

The best we can do is to hope that, over the coming months, enough people will be able to be vaccinated that we can bring this under better control and slowly return to more normal lives. But, sadly, we still have a long way to go on this current path.

Meanwhile, when all else fails, there is always baking Hammantaschen!

 Love,                                                          

Rebecca