Check out earlier stories:
https://grandmacharslessonslearned.blogspot.com/2017/08/two-seniors-in-condo-two-men-and-truck.html
http://grandmacharslessonslearned.blogspot.com/2018/10/reporting-in-one-year-after-move.html
For those who may be new around here --- We left our downtown condo in 2017 and moved to a much larger log home in a rural setting, embarking on a family adventure of blending two families. The wheels started turning just about four years ago, and I am here to report we are all doing just fine. "We" would include our daughter Jill (third in line, family-wise and a school administrator), her husband Tim, two kids who are now both teenagers, my husband Paul and me, both now past 75. Oh, yes, and a dog, who might be hurt if she isn't included here.
Somehow in my past blog reports, I have managed to neglect two very significant items: a photo of our home (which will appear later, if my techie skills allow) and a report of the hundred-year flood we survived in August, 2018. That event was a challenge, and left us stranded without power for a couple days, but it was nothing compared to what we have endured for exactly one year as of today.
The Covid pandemic was officially declared on Wednesday, March 11, 2020, but like just about everyone else, it took us a day or two to actually go into total shutdown, and something feels so very right about declaring Friday the 13th as our first real pandemic day.
You might think that life changed the least for our son-in-law Tim, who mostly works from home in his role as a taxidermist. But I see it differently. When we made the decision to move in together, and for three years after that, the rest of us were all very busy with our lives. The vehicles in our garage and driveway were in almost constant rotation as we went about our adventures. There is no way that Tim would have ever contemplated the possibility of having all of us home ALL of the time!
Tim continued as usual, spending time in his basement workroom or first-floor office area, while the rest of us searched out spaces to call our home base. Jill made herself a cozy (but dark and chilly) office in a basement closet, the kids (luckily) each have a bedroom of their own plus a loft area they share, and Paul and I have plenty of space to roam around on the main floor. Of course, there were times when the wifi went out and we all panicked, and times when we were all on Zoom calls or meetings that worked best if we could be as isolated as possible, for privacy and ease of listening --- not always possible, and the dog often interfered with those plans, barking loudly at a passing neighbor, the FedEx truck, or a brave squirrel in the yard.
The house had won us over with its size and charm, and we were lucky to have so much space, so many possibilities. The kitchen, advertised at sale time as a "chef's kitchen," was big enough to accommodate all of us meeting and eating on various schedules, and our resident chef --- that would be Tim, bless his heart (as my mom would say!) --- shared this space with the rest of us without complaint.
At first, during breaks from online classes, the kids sought out other things to do - playing board games, jumping on the trampoline in the back yard, practicing karate and gymnastics moves, constructing some sort of science model that took over the central stairway. Little by little, however, all that stopped and the older one drifted to the kitchen to experiment with recipes and become his dad's sous chef, while the younger one took to her room and her iPhone, or so I am guessing. I KNOW she wasn't always cleaning her room, after all!
Except for very occasional road trips to our summer cabin in the north woods, and Tim's trips to the grocery store, no one went anywhere. And the main reason for that was their concern for our welfare - the aging grandparents, with at least one underlying condition. Younger teen had had a very active social life prior to this major shift, and while older teen was eventually able to get his drivers license, he had nowhere to go and has now spent long months with no driving experience at all.
We did not gather with other family members for holidays or birthdays, did not have our usual summer gathering of 20-plus for a week at the lake, and most painfully of all for me, we are still waiting to meet in person two of the three new babies that were born to our family in 2020. (One came for a mostly outdoor visit, complete with masks and social distancing; the other two we have seen only on family Zoom visits or Facetime calls).
There are many positives about this situation. At first, Paul and I felt useful when we could chauffer the kids around, but that ended when all of their activities came to an abrupt halt. Now, we can help out with meals when Tim is gone - for fishing trips or his extended absence while on his other job as a hunting guide during the deer hunting season. Those awesome teens come to our rescue when we struggle with a phone problem or Zoom connection. We have a lot of time together as a family, and no one ever needs to feel lonely. Hopefully we are all building memories for the future.
We the grandparents are now fully vaccinated, schools are opening up, Jill has emerged from the basement and is once again leaving for work each day. One of these days, us older folks will venture out again as well. It is hard to imagine how different all of this would have been if we had remained in our condo.
