One family’s take on bunkering down for stay-at-home COVID-19 quarantine
This week I’m sharing a life-writing example of my own.
It’s about our new ‘stay at home’ quarantine life thanks to coronavirus.
We are all living in dark and strange days of social distancing and self isolation.
So this is my take on life for my family and I as we bunker down from coronavirus.
Certainly, I know many of you are motivated at the moment to put pen to paper.
For instance, author and journalist Trent Dalton inspired me to draft this life-writing example through his Tales From the Bunker series.
Likewise I’d love to hear from you about your recent ‘bunker’ writing.
This could be about an autobiography, memoir, biography or other life-story project.
On the other hand, let me know where you like to write at the moment or where you are up to in your writing: planning, writing, polishing or publishing.
But first, here’s a serve of some homegrown life writing – enjoy!
Tales from a home bunker
I’m sure it was the cheese board comment that did it.
It jinxed us.
Just a few weeks ago I said I couldn’t look at another cheese wheel after a four-month run of end-of-year celebrations.
It started with my birthday in November, Christmas in our new home plus end-of-decade parties.
Then there were Hottest 100 countdowns, my husband Luke’s birthday party on St Valentine’s day and various summer Sunday sessions where neighborhood parents and kids free-ranged through our garden and house.
But thanks to COVID-19 the shutters came down hard and fast on life as we knew it.
What I wouldn’t give for a cheese board with friends – even a small one!
First my work encouraged me to login from home.
Then this became a directive to all staff.
Next my husband’s workplace followed suit and school principals encouraged pupils to stay away.
My family’s first day home altogether was my daughter’s seventh birthday.
Luckily she thought the Prime Minister basically canceling school for the foreseeable future was the best present ever!
But Luke and I exchanged worried looks as social restrictions ratcheted up daily and we were forced to cancel her birthday party for that weekend.
Welcome to the new normal
First gatherings of 500 were banned, then 100, followed by groups of 10, and finally 3 or more.
Planes were grounded and borders shut.
Thankfully my in-laws slipped back into the country after marking my father-in-law’s birthday.
They had been on a Pacific cruise that miraculously docked before cyclones and coronavirus hit.
Suddenly we were all pushed sideways into an alternate dimension where the footy was cancelled and loo rolls became the Holy Grail of ‘essential’ shopping trips.
I rushed the kids to the GP to get our flu shots: “Keep your hands in your pockets. Don’t touch anything. No, you cannot eat that lollipop the nurse gave you until we are back in the car and hands clean.”
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Talking about coronavirus
My dad in Tasmania rang to say there had been a coronavirus case reported in his city.
As a working GP in his 70s – who recently had surgery for five heart bypasses – he was worried.
“I am a bit scared,” he said down the phone.
“But I have to do my duty. This is why we signed up.”
Meanwhile my son, 4, came to me one morning.
“I’m frustrated,” he said with little clenched fists by his side.
“Everybody keeps saying the word coronavirus!”
Damn straight we were all frustrated and then some: worry, fear, dread.
Emotions swirled with questions.
How was this thing going to pan out? What would it costs us? How would we cope?
I thought back to conversations I had with my mother’s late mum Mary, who we lived with for years while I was growing up.
“You just got on with it,” she’d told me about living through tough years on the land, world wars, the Great Depression, illness and loss.
Well ain’t that the truth.
Then I rang my father’s mum, Bonnie, 99, to see how she was faring in lockdown at her nursing home.
She put aside her hot cuppa to talk to me.
“I’m fine,” she said.
“The most important thing is you, Luke and the kids are all together, safe and healthy.”
“And do you know there are only 49 days until I’m 100!”
This made me laugh. Even in the face of a global pandemic this gorgeous lady was seeing the positives.
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The light and shade of coronavirus
So this is what we all have to do: bunker down and appreciate the isolation moments.
Like my daughter delivering her party bags via BMX to her friends’ doorsteps.
My son having days to building The Ultimate Mega City in his room with every single toy.
Or my husband ducking out for a beach swim during his ‘work-from-home’ lunch break.
And us all laughing together during quarantine board-game battles and front lawn camp outs.
Yep, coronavirus you have definitely put the brakes on 2020 and I’m sure there are still dark days ahead.
But I’m coming to see that lockdown brings all the most important things in life into focus.
And they are all right here under the one roof with me.
Stay safe everyone.
I’ll see you with a cheese board on the other side.
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Final say: coronavirus quarantine
I hope you and your family are healthy during the coronavirus outbreak.
Certainly many of us are living in the moment with clarity of what is most important.
Therefore I hope you feel encouraged to start and keep writing during the pandemic.
Moreover I’d love to hear about your own ‘bunker’ writing and answer questions if you get stuck.
Email anytime: http://foreveryoungautobiographies.com/contact
Stay healthy and happy writing!
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Your say
How are you and your family going in these times of coronavirus quarantine? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Send me an email or leave a reply in the comments section at the end of this article.
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This article first appeared on the website Forever Young Autobiographies.com.