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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.

Something very difficult happened to us nine days ago. My family wanted to circle around us and hug us. The short answer would be that they weren't able to do this because of COVID. Instead we had a family Zoom call on a Saturday night. My sister and daughter and nephew and their spouses and brother and son were all there! It felt like a virtual hug. My sister-in-law couldn't make it so a couple of days later she and my brother called and did some nice sharing. What is interesting about this event was that it wouldn't have been very different in the absence of COVID except that these close relatives could offer to come visit to support us if we needed the support. They are in different places, CA, DC, OH, VT, and it's not likely that they would have dropped everything to come and support us. But they would have been able to offer. It is even possible that if COVID had never happened my sister wouldn't have thought of having an organized family gathering via Zoom, though it would have been the best option anyway. We traveled to DC to see our daughter, son-in-law and grandson. We got COVID tests before we went and got tests when we were there as CT requires in order to return without quarantining. Our daughter also wanted us to get tested to be sure her baby wouldn't be bringing COVID back to daycare the next week. While we were there they got a night away and we watched the baby. I drove her to where they were staying. If it weren't for COVID they would have taken the Metro. We never drove to see them before COVID. WE always flew, except once when we took the train, with my in-laws for our grandson's bris. They are very careful about COVID and don't shop on weekends or holidays. Our daughter makes challah bread every other week. She made it last week and this week because we were visiting and Friday was a holiday they didn't go shopping so they had no challah bread, which was too bad. We went to see our son-in-law's mother, who is disabled. Because of COVID we walked around outside with her for 45 minutes. THe park was the highest place in DC and pretty windy, so it was quite cold.