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Think about the people closest to you. Tell us about how the coronavirus has affected them, and their life.

I have a 14 year old son. He has always been a joyful, smart, active kid. He would tell you he didn't really like school in the past but the transition to "zoom school" has been hard. He has gone for months at a time never seeing someone his own age except through a screen. He plays less and scrolls through his phone more. He's an athlete, whose sports were all cancelled. My older son eventually left college to come home as well. I'll talk about him later. In the beginning of Covid getting bad here I insisted that I would supplement their relatively poor online school experience by teaching them one "essential life skill" a couple of evenings a week if I wasn't working. They thought I was being "extra" about school. I was actually worrying I might get sick and die and thinking of all the things I hadn't taught them. I'm a single parent and a health care worker. What would happen if I fell ill? I taught them how to sew a button on a shirt, how to cook a few simple healthy meals for themselves, how to find the 23d psalm in the Bible, how to shuffle a deck of cards like a pro, how to start seeds indoors, how to get a hard workout done in the basement with only a few weights and a yoga mat. One night I taught them how to open a wine bottle - but that was for me. My 14 year old became quieter, laughed less. Looked distracted and bored in zoom school. Slept poorly and climbed into my bed one night because he had had a bad dream that his grandparents had died and he started wondering what would happen to him if I died. I promised him I wouldn't die, that I was being super careful, that I had enough masks and gloves and gowns to keep me safe. I knew I wasn't being entirely truthful, but it made him feel better and really, that's part of my job as his mom- to keep him believing in some type of normal.