QUARANTINED

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QUARANTINED

(By choice)

 

            This is only the second time in my 72 years that I have been quarantined whether by choice or not. The first time was when I was 4 and had the German or two week measles and pneumonia at the same time. I am not sure I really thought about not being able to leave the house at that age.

            My dog and my mother were there to keep me occupied. But I spent most of my time sleeping so time meant nothing to me. The worst part about being kept at home and in the house that time was I didn’t know night from day.

            My schedule during the measles got turned around and I wanted to eat and play during the night and the day time was when I wanted to sleep. But that was partly because everyone in the early 50’s thought the sun would ruin a child’s eyes when they had the measles. So the house was kept dark during the day.

            Unless my Grandmother came down to the house to stay with me while Mom went out for grocery shopping my mother was quarantined just like I was. She probably had Grandmother there during the day a couple of times so she could get out of the house, but I don’t remember that because that was when I was sleeping.

            The only other person I saw during those two to three weeks other than my parents and Grandmother was the local doctor. Since I had the measles and pneumonia in January he didn’t want mom to bring me out to see him at the office nor did they want me in the hospital.

            The doctor stopped by on his way to work to check on me and on his way home after work. He was like the old country doctors and didn’t charge them for the visits to the house. He just wanted to keep an eye on the skinny little 4 year old that was so sick.

            Mom told me several times that I would wake up about 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning and want to eat lunch. I had breakfast during the evening before they went to bed. Then as they were having breakfast I was ready for supper and then would go to sleep for the rest of the day.

            I am sure the quarantine period when I was 4 was hard on Mom. It was a good thing that I had my cocker spaniel to play with and keep me company when I was awake or it would have been a lot worse for her.

            Now I am in quarantine again. This time it is my choice to stay in to avoid the Corona virus. As a result of the measles and the pneumonia at the same time at the age of 4 I have always been susceptible to any of the bronchial flu bugs that go around. The doctor warned mom of that when he was taking care of me and he sure knew what he was talking about.

            During this quarantine time at age 72, I have been reading and working on some stories for the paper and coloring. I have a lot of pictures printed off waiting for me to color them with my Prismacolor pencils and now is a good time to work on them since I am not leaving the house.

            My husband has gone to Wal-Mart and picked up some groceries but did not go in. He ordered them online and they did the shopping and brought them to the car and loaded them in the trunk. That is a free service they do for their customers. We really appreciated the service at this time.

            When he got home with the groceries he wiped down every item with Clorox wipes as he took them out of the grocery sacks. He didn’t bring the sacks into the house; he wiped everything down in the garage. I waited in the kitchen door so he could hand them to me and then I put them away.

            Then he took a shower and put all the clothes he had been wearing into the washer. We have done everything we can do to stop the virus from getting us. My hands are washed so often during the day that they look worse than when I was working in the beauty salon and doing 15+ people every day.

            These three weeks at home and not getting out has been hard to get used to. I always worked in high school and then as a hairdresser and talked to lots of people every day. I miss the interaction with the people I saw everyday. I worked until 4 years ago when I retired. But even after I retired I left the house several times a week for lunch or shopping or to teach the Life Story Writing class at the Towers.

             Somehow I will get through this until they are sure it has run its course. Then I will really enjoy getting out and about again. So if you are working from home or in self imposed quarantine……..hang in there, you are not alone. The more of us that don’t get out and catch this virus the sooner it will go away.

             I am looking forward to getting out and going to Freddy’s for a hamburger and fries and getting a coke at the Kwik Shop. I hope this is the last time in my life that I will have to self quarantine. Being quarantined, even by choice, is hard to get used to when you are used to going out whenever you want to. To contact Sandy: [email protected]

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