A holiday season spoiled by the pandemic

 This post was published in the Wilson Times Nov. 6, 2020

The coming “holiday season” will be like none we’ve ever experienced before. Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2019 came and went before a Coronavirus became part of our vocabulary. Thanksgiving and Christmas this year will be remembered as the pandemic holidays, the times when getting the family together will be much more difficult than ever before.

It’s always a challenge to get a far-flung family together each year, but most of the time, we find a way. One year might find our children and grandchildren at our house; other years one of the younger generation volunteers to host the gathering. Sometimes additional family members are included — parents-in-law, brother- or sister-in-law, nieces or nephews. New significant others of these relatives can also be added, or neighbors without relatives close enough to share a holiday together.

But the Coronavirus this year will disrupt our Thanksgiving and Christmas traditions, just as it has disrupted so many other aspects of our lives. Those who have to board an airplane to get to the family Thanksgiving location might be reluctant to board a sealed capsule with dozens of strangers whose medical conditions, health and personal responsibility are not known. News media will announce the crowded conditions at airports and the number of flights that are in the air. Did I say “crowded”? That’s not a good adjective in a pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 Americans.

Those who can gather with family members without taking a plane or a train are not home free. The traditional Thanksgiving dinner (think of the Norman Rockwell painting) will be more difficult than ever to pull off this year. Government guidelines recommend face masks and social distancing with a limit of no more than 25 people in one indoor space. For many families, 25 is not nearly enough. The descendants of my parents (who died in 2006), that is, their children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren, now total around 40 people from babies in arms to my brother and me, both in our 70s.

For about 30 years (no one is sure exactly when we started, but it was about 1990), the family had met in Charleston, S.C., for a meal together. We won’t be doing it this year. The Coronavirus has put an end to that tradition, at least temporarily.

Family members worry about being infected despite the precautions everyone is taking. They worry about staying in a hotel room (who slept here last? Did they have any symptoms?) and eating in a restaurant (close contact with servers and the sanitation standards in the kitchen are worrisome, even in the best restaurants).

America’s restaurant habits might not survive the pandemic. For most of my life, we have celebrated birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, graduations, and most happy moments with a restaurant meal. But the Coronavirus has many Americans worried about potential infections from eating in a restaurant with dozens of other people in the same room.

If this pandemic lingers, where will we go to celebrate joyful events in our lives?