“I’ve been in this place before. I’ve gone through times in my...

“I’ve been in this place before.  I’ve gone through times in my life when I’ve had this much fear, and I ended up coming out the other side.  When I lost my job.  When my husband left me.  I survived those things, so I try to remind myself of that.  But it’s been a lot of stress: cheese puffs for breakfast, beer for lunch, the same pajamas for three days.  Yesterday my four year old told me that I looked like a pickle.  So it’s been a lot.  But my main fear is this: what would happen to my kids?  I’m a single mother of three.  And I’m high risk because I have a rare lung disease.  I haven’t been vocal about it, so not many people know.  But those who do have taken such good care of me.  Nobody’s made me feel needy.  Some days I’ll open my door and there’s notes, or cards, or activities for my kids.  One anonymous person left a bottle of hand sanitizer, with a note that said: ‘The world needs you.’  Last week we decided to return the favor.  We put my daughter Zoey’s finger paintings in all our neighbors’ mailboxes.  We called it Quarantine Art Club.  Then yesterday we got a package on our doorstep.  Our neighbor down the block had added all these beautiful drawings to Zoey’s painting.  He signed it: ‘A Zoey and Karl production,’ so his name must be Karl.  And his girlfriend’s name is Lauren.  She added a bag of cookies.  But that’s all I know about them!  We’ve never even met them.  They rode by the house yesterday and they waved out their car window.  They said: ‘Is that Zoey?’  It was so much fun.  I couldn’t get close, so I just kept blowing them kisses from the porch.”
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