The first hint of this was a news report about the corona virus in Wuhan, China. This was the epicenter of this virus. It seemed to be spreading quickly and it was deadly. This was at the time of the Chinese New Year and people were told to stay in their homes. The news showed awful pictures of people in Wuhan being arrested and their homes sealed with them in the home if they violated this restriction. The pictures of the streets of Wuhan ready for a New Year's celebration were empty. Awful.
Then the virus started to spread to surrounding countries. Since it was a new strain of virus, little was known about how it was spread. But spread it did.
The next shocking thing was the spread to a cruise ship. By then it was in Japan and the Diamond Princess cruise ship was docked and people were not being let off the ship. They had passengers who tested positive for the corona virus and they quarantined the ship and its passengers and crew. This made a petri dish out of the cruise ship. Cases of the virus increased on that ship.
Another ship, the Westerdam, was not allowed to dock and set to sea until they could find a port to dock in. 11 days later no one would let them dock. They had no cases of corona virus on board but no one wanted to take a chance of letting them dock as the entire cruise had been in the Asian countries affected by the spread of the virus. Eventually Cambodia allowed them to dock at a small port. It was not near a major airport and they were needing to move 1000+ people off the ship and to an airport. They did this by bus load over a period of time. The people were disembarked in groups and put up in a hotel till taken to the larger airport a good distance away. The first group they let off the ship made it to the major city to their flight home only to find that one of those passengers now had the corona virus. The operation was halted, people were told to isolate in their hotel rooms or still on the ship until they were sure they wouldn't spread the virus and that others on the ship didn't have the disease. Eventually governments from around the world were sending special flights to get their people from this country to their home countries.
Eventually cases started appearing in the United States as well. Washington State has been especially hit hard as a care facility had a spread of the virus in it and several of the residents there died.
We started to see shelves in stores clearing of items like toilet paper and bleach. Claude and I had looked for face masks but there were absolutely none to be found. This seemed to be the first item that was totally off any store shelves anywhere. We have always maintained a supply of goods in case we had to stay home or couldn't get to the store. Claude had early on made sure we had the toilet paper and cleaning products we needed in our home. Now people are posting pictures of their stores with empty shelves in cities all over the United States.
On Saturday, May 6th, I got a recipe for hand sanitizer from my sister, Junie, and purchased the ingredients to make this. You could not find it on any shelves to purchase. I only found alcohol in a Dollar General Store and I did find aloe vera gel at CVS Pharmacy. This is an item we only keep a couple of tiny bottles of as we use soap and water for cleaning our hands.
As I visited Papa each day there was a sign on the front door telling us to not enter if we felt sick in the least degree. It also stated we needed to clean our hands with sanitizer before we entered and again when we left. I had been doing that anyway and then washing my hands again when I got home.
As this all happened, I would tell Papa about it when I visited him. He can't remember and he doesn't hear so he wasn't getting this information except through me. I visited Papa on Saturday and again updated him on the virus. It was in Kentucky by then. It was in Harrison County which is the county next to Scott County where we live. I told Papa they were restricting things and some things were not happening due to this virus. I told him if I didn't show up at some point, it would be because of restrictions to visitors at the nursing home. Then I promised him that Sunday would be a good day and I would take him for a car ride.
Sunday after Church, I went to the nursing home with my car ready for Papa and I to go on a nice drive. I got to the front door and there was a new sign on the door. This one said no visitors would be allowed for an unspecified period of time. Ronnie was working and saw me reading the sign and getting ready to write down the name and phone number for the administrator for the nursing home. She came to the door and we talked. I told her I understood what they were doing and agreed with it 100%. I asked her if the residents were being talked to. She said they had made one pass through the residents and only those who were sleeping at the time had not been told. They would go back and tell these residents after they woke up. She said she would go back and talk to Papa for me so he understood there would be no drive that Sunday. Ronnie said they were sending a letter home to the resident's families to alert them to what was going on. I left and headed home as Ronnie went to talk with Papa.
As I drove home I determined I would send a letter to Papa every day so he at least gets mail from me each day. I sent the first letter Monday and included a picture in it.
The television news reports on WKYT in Lexington said that all older people should stay inside. Claude and I both looked at each other and said, "Are we 'older people'?" The news later informed us that anyone 60 and older should stay inside. Well, that was our answer, we are older people. I'm 69 and Claude is 70. Yep, we are older people. Even though we are fairly healthy, this virus seems to be especially hard on people in that age range or older.
Today I wanted to mail Papa a Church News. It would give him something fresh to read. However, the envelope would require extra postage and I went to the Sadieville post office to be sure it had the correct postage on it. The light was on. I walked into the little lobby where the post office boxes are. When I tried to open the glass door to get to the counter, it was locked. They open at 8:15am and this was 9:30am. I searched for a notice on any door or surface about them closing. Nothing. I knocked on the glass door and got no response. I couldn't hear any noise from worker in the back. I got in my car and called on my cell phone and received no answer. Not sure if they are closed or not. But when I got home there was mail in my mail box.
I received the letter from the nursing home mailed on Monday today. I also found a new letter on the Signature Health Care Facebook page.
Today I also received communication from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which Claude and I attend. This came from Salt Lake City. We have our Semi-Annual General Conference in April. This is attended by people from around the world. Instruction has been given that no one will be permitted into the General Conference this April. All sessions will be broadcast and we can view them via television or streaming on our devices from our homes. Other places in the world are having restrictions placed on their meetings and activities. The missionaries entering the Provo, Utah and Preston, England Missionary Training Centers are going to be trained remotely by video conference. We are waiting now to hear from our Bishop, Rex Holt, about Church services this weekend.
After carefully pondering this situation Sunday while driving home from the nursing home, I determined the blessing for me in all this is 'time'. I now have an opportunity to fill my time with things I have wanted to get done in my home that have been slowed down or not done because of my schedule to visit Papa. I will try to use this time to clear out things I want to accomplish.
To that end, Claude and I spent Monday in our car driving around looking at homes in areas of the state where we might like to move. We are feeling that when Papa passes we may make a move to another area. Not right away but in the future. We want to make a well informed decision. Having time where we are to stay off to ourselves allowed us a full day to drive in some of the areas we thought we might like to live and see from our car view what we both like and what we both feel we do not want. This gave us time to talk about the things we were seeing and opened our eyes and minds to other possibilities and questions we might want to address if we moved. The only reason for a move is the yard over time will be too much for us to take care of. If it were flat ground, that would not be the case. But the hill on which our home is located is daunting to mow and lots of weeding to be done. We love our home and this ground so very much. Really don't want to leave it. But we are watching family and friends as they age and trying to see what happens with them and learn from them. We are trying to picture our lives 5, 10 and 15 years down the road and determined what housing should be like for us at those points in our lives. What if one of us predeceases the other, what type of home would we want to have for just one of us to live in. Those kinds of things. We just want to learn and gather information now for when the time comes to make a decision. Monday was a lovely day with just the two of us in the Jeep looking at places of interest and learning.
Tuesday morning I spent taking care of my house plants. They all needed fresh soil and trimming or tossing. This process always takes longer than I think it will. It felt good to get that long-term item off the 'to do list'. We were going to the temple in the evening. There are no restrictions there yet. We got ready and left the house at 3:30pm to head to Louisville. When we got there and were walking across the parking lot to the temple, Claude checked his wallet for his recommend. He did not have his temple recommend. One can't get in without it. Back to the Jeep and checked through his wallet and his clothing bag. No recommend. I simply smiled at my hubby and said, "All is well if you get me ice cream!" Off to Dairy Queen we headed for an ice cream treat. On the way home I get a text from a neighbor asking if we have water. She didn't have running water in her home. I got another text back from my friend and she said there was a broken water line and it would take about 4 hours to fix. I sent a text to two other friends on our street and eventually they responded that we did have water. Char is much further out and it was just going to take a bit for the pressure to get the water to her. Life is interesting.
So we press forward. Doing what we can to protect ourselves and others from this virus. We keep a prayer in our hearts for those who have the virus. I am grateful that our Prophet Russell M. Nelson set us on a path a year ago for us to study as families in our homes and that be the first center of learning the Gospel. Meeting on Sunday's would support that effort. If they cancel Church, it should be no problem as we are already in a position to learn and study and build a faith-filled life. Grateful for a Prophet!!
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