Posted on April 7, 2020 at 9:19 AM by Jason Macoviak
Last night my husband and I were part of an online zoom experience with about 30 family members across Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Florida and Utah. We all got to see each other and talk for over an hour. There was a lot of laughter, along with some somber moments! I got to see the newest great granddaughter online for the first time, sweet little Jamie. My two daughters were their usual humorous and uplifting selves, along with all their grown children sitting, onscreen, in their own living rooms. There was an entertaining entrance to the zoom "meeting" by our 20-year-old college student grandson in Texas as he was in his car finishing a meal delivery, with his cell phone propped up on the car seat so that we could all only see the top of his head! I know that more zoom times will be coming in the future, and I know that sometime in the future we will all see each other again with hugs and laughter, but I will never take such times for granted ever again. And nothing can match this first zoom experience for its surreal addition to the year 2020 along with all of what has transpired since January 1.
I told our family members that our little town of Bisbee is taking the virus very seriously and so far there are no reported cases in town. Of course, that can change at any moment, but no one else in the family could say that. One of our granddaughters and her husband live, work and go to college in Gunnison, Colorado. They came to visit family in Grand Junction almost a month ago for Spring break, and are still there. The first week they were gone, Gunnison shut down and the whole town is quarantined and restricting people from entering or leaving. So many tourist came from Italy over Spring break to the nearby ski resort that they brought the virus with them and Gunnison is now a hot spot.
When the first serious word of this virus started cropping up on local news, it was during the week of March 9. As I drove through downtown Bisbee that Saturday, March 14, there were crowds of people shopping and enjoying the good weather, but it was soon after that when everything changed. It is a uniquely stressful time that none of us have experienced in our lifetimes. When things "get back to normal", I hope we are all dedicated to making positive changes centered around making the needs and health of all people top priority, something our country hasn't done in a long time. We now have a new appreciation of how quickly things can change!