Covid and community by Ruth Neuwald Falcon

I had planned (hoped would probably be a better word) to write something so that we could greet the New Year together, but I got Covid instead. Given the name of this blog, and its origins, it does, upon reflection (lots of time for reflection with Covid), seem like an unexpected but fitting place for reentry. 

Covid sucks. I am doing my best to be a patient patient and, thanks to Paxlovid, I haven’t been as sick as I might be. I hear tales of non-Paxlovided people who are horribly ill for many days. I just had two terrible ones, plenty to remind me that this is still no joke. 

Don’t tell people about your Covid, counseled a California friend as he encouraged me to write a New Year post. That’s not what they want to hear about. They want to hear how far you’ve come and how your life is coming together. Tell them how you’re getting to know people and how fortunate it is you’re so much closer to the city so that you’ve been able to be physically present for a couple of old friends when they went through some serious medical challenges recently. Tell them how you were able to spend the holidays with your oldest friend and her family, how that family has opened to welcome you so warmly. 

When I started my odyssey away from the geography and the structures of the life I had lived for so long on the west coast, I knew I wanted to find community, even though I wasn’t exactly sure what that would look like. Being part of community had been one of the major gifts of those west coast years. I made one friend in each of the two cities I moved to before finding my way here, both of whom are precious to me. But no sense of community, and I couldn’t see how I would find one in either place.

I’ve  been in the mid-Hudson Valley less than five months. Three neighbors have been checking in on me since I got Covid. Two of them did food runs for me. Another new friend, who doesn’t live in the complex, offered me her unused Paxlovid when it looked like I might have trouble getting it. 

This is what community looks like. I am so grateful.