Text Only

Talk about how the pandemic has affected your closest relationships.

How has the coronavirus affected my closest relationships? I can't even begin to answer this fully. I miss my mother, desperately. She is alive and well and only two hours but a world away. I miss her voice, I miss the gentle way she brushes my daughter's hair. Their banter back and forth heard through the wall, two melodic voices in different registers, a tinkling brook of dialogue. I miss taking walks with her, riding the train on a Saturday morning to visit her, the way she always makes sure to have good coffee in the house when I visit. Her shabby apartment where she's lived for twenty years, the wiggly kitchen table, the knick knacks, the too-warm bathroom and the picture window above the kitchen sink. Her silly little Honda Fit that rattles around back roads of Vermont when she drives to swimming holes and places to walk. How she will talk to anyone kindly, any person in any context for any reason. How she never cuts corners, almost to a maddening degree, never does a shitty job with anything, never treats anyone as an afterthought. How she writes the best letters and cards and makes the best Valentines. How she believes in things. How she loves lavender and birdsong. How she misses the sea.