Sep 27, 2021 | Grace
2020 was going to be an amazing year. So many exciting things were going to happen. It just held so much promise. My oldest son, Kory and his wife, Nicole, were expecting their first baby in May, my first grandchild. My daughter Jacey was getting married to Eric and their wedding was planned for August. And my son Jordie, was fighting for a place on Canada’s Olympic team to go to the Tokyo Olympics in July 2020. The whole family was planning to go to Japan to cheer him on.And then COVID-19 happened. Jordie made the Olympic team in a tense competition in March right before the first lockdown. The worry of the competition being cancelled loomed until the last minute. And then after the high of making the team, within weeks the Olympics were postponed. The training venues were locked and closed down. It was a time of the greatest excitement and then the biggest disappointment. Thankfully Baby Ellie was born healthy in May, but without family support at the hospital and with the worry by everyone at that time for baby’s and mom’s safety from COVID. Masks were worn for the first ten months of her life by everyone except her mom and dad. The usually joyous event of a new baby was definitely tempered by worry, infrequent visits and masks. The wedding was postponed of course, no 200 person parties were going to happen for a long time. Jacey tried to plan a smaller wedding in December as we worked to try and do something outside in a tent at our house. But Windsor’s numbers climbed and we shut those plans down. She tried to plan for a Chatham venue because they were doing better than Windsor, with only 25 people attending. One week before the wedding, the province went into full lockdown and those plans were cancelled. Happily, they decided last minute (like that day) to get an officiant on December 27th and we had the wedding with ten people at our house. They were thrilled to get married in 2020, although it did not even remotely resemble the wedding first planned. There had been no bridal shower, no reception and she did not have the chance to wear her beautiful wedding dress (still hanging in her closet).My youngest son Jack, who was working in Lake Louise in the hospitality industry found himself without a job as the largest employer in the area simply shut their doors. There was no ability to know when they would open, or if they would still have jobs. One of the busiest areas in Alberta for tourists was simply no longer in operation. So, with no job and no hospitality industry, he just came home.Of course, through the year of 2020, our work did not stop. The hospital went into emergency planning and incredible changes. The stress of this virus caused worry and fear for all of us on the frontline. My office practice changed dramatically, going to virtual care when we could, but still needing to see patients in need of urgent review, vaccinating babies and children, and bringing infection control practices to the office. Staff needed to be trained and our day-to-day work looked completely different. It’s hard to think back to when there was no vaccine and the only protection we had was our masks, gowns, gloves and sanitizing protocols. People were dying. People were afraid. But we went to work everyday and continued to do our job.The hardest thing for me was managing the underlying stress of the work and the fear associated with what we had to do, but also trying to support my children as they encountered major stresses and disappointments in their lives. I think the fact there were so many exciting, happy events that were going to define 2020, made the reality of the pandemic a little more difficult to manage. But I knew everyone had stories of loss and challenges and we tried to focus on what we did have to be thankful for in 2020. Jordie made the Olympic team and he would go in 2021. Jacey and Eric did get married, it looked different but it was beautiful. Jack went back to Lake Louise and did his snowboard instructors course while he waited for the hospitality industry to re-open. And baby Ellie is healthy and now that we are all vaccinated, she knows our faces and we get to see her regularly, and that is amazing. My family is healthy, we did not lose anyone to COVID and for that I am so grateful. The pandemic of 2020/21 has been a time of stress and challenge for every person in some way - for many, much worse than others. But it has taught us to be more patient, kind and appreciative of the gifts we have, the importance of family and relationships. I believe our family has come out stronger and more resilient from this experience of COVID-19 with lessons learned that will only help us going forward to better days.