Dear Reader:

Lately most of us have been caught up in the first anniversary memories of the pandemic… that became disclosed to us as a nation a year ago…changing our way of life  so abruptly that we were all captured in a tangled web of disbelief.

I have been searching my own memory box and want to share with you some events and feelings that enveloped me this time last year.

I remember I had gone over to stay with Mandy the second week of March, or as it came to be known… “The Week That Was.” When I left home that Monday I didn’t know that life would never be the same by the time I returned on “Freaky Friday.”

John was away on a business conference so I went to help Mandy get the kids ready for school each day and be there for them when they got off the bus…since Mandy didn’t get home from her teaching job until later in the afternoon.

I was also keeping Tigger, their precious dog,  company while coming up with ideas to bribe the grandchildren into getting their homework done early…so we could go to a park or get ice cream or eat out…something different each afternoon.

And then Friday the 13th arrived. When I met the grandchildren’s bus they were lugging cardboard boxes of school supplies…even the bus driver was helping each child get off the bus. I remember asking them what in the world was going on and Eva Cate told me their teachers said they might not be returning to school the following week…so it was a precaution just in case.

It this had been a mystery movie…it would have been where the audience heard the slow “death bongs of a grandfather clock chiming.” I knew then what was about to transpire. When Mandy got in from her school she glanced at me and slowly shook her head… but said nothing.

We had not even recovered from that news… when Mollie called and told Mandy Kaitlyn had called her…she and Tommy’s home and the B&B side had burned from a plumbing accident by a company sent to fix some pipes that afternoon .

John was getting in later that evening so I was headed home but we all stopped to see the damage…it was considerable. A real Friday the 13th tragedy.

When I got home it was dark…so I went to sleep setting my alarm to meet the neighbor gals for breakfast which we did on Saturdays…but nobody called or came.

When I called to check… I discovered my neighbors had been in quarantine all week.. they were telling me the store shelves were practically empty…but they would drop off some extra food until I could set up for the store to start delivering groceries for me.

I think it was actually that Saturday March 14 that the reality of the quarantine hit me…I was completely stunned. The impact of the life changes, about to reveal themselves, hit me full force.

And we were still pre-mask at that moment…with so much more to come.

But we did it…now with two vaccinations behind me…spring weather bringing beauty and blossoms to the lowcountry…with more help on the way…life is slowly bringing hope where once mixed emotions (that ran the gamut)  existed and even thrived… denial, depression, defenseless, devastation, defiant… along side determination, devout, disciplined, doable, and delightful.

So here we all are today, Saturday March 13, 2021…our first anniversary…how should we celebrate? Well…if this was a wedding anniversary it would traditionally be PAPER.

It is believed that paper is the traditional first anniversary gift because it symbolizes the blank pages on which you write the newest chapter in your life. … Paper, much like love, connects all of us together through time and space.

The new modern first anniversary gift is now the CLOCK!

The modern gift is a clock, which commemorates the passage of time over this important first year.

So until tomorrow…

Hopefully this has been my gift(s) to you over this past year of the pandemic…blog posts instead of paper…time to be with you each day over the clock.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

It is time to remember:

“Don’t tell people your dreams-show them!”

Wipe the dust off your secret dreams and make them come true now in 2021…life is too short to do otherwise.

More “pretties” abound….showing my dreams!

My first “baby daffodil!” (It is all of three inches)

The last “normal” family birthday party was Lachlan’s last year…our St. Patrick’s Day boy…Mandy brought Lachlan and Jake to my house and we had a Dinosaur themed birthday with clues to keep the boys running around the garden looking for them…it all lead up to the birthday presents and cake with dinosaurs…we didn’t realize then that birthdays would look different there after.

Yesterday afternoon my “She-Roe” arrived! My niece, Carrie, stopped by after teaching school to help me get my on-line banking app back on track.

It seems like my bank is always working on updating the on-line banking accounts and I end up not being able to pull mine again after they do this.

But like a fairy God-Mother with a magical wand… Carrie figured out the solution to the problem in under two minutes!

Carrie and I have both finished our complete vaccinations so we could talk without masks- so after greeting each other with masks…we threw them off…a wonderful symbol of progress among complete vaccination liberators… and for the first time in a year we got to have a thankful hug between aunt and niece saying good-bye…just celebrating being back together again.

And now…to everyone!