T’s Pandemic birthday
We have eight grandchildren. All of them are unique and different and amazing in their own ways. We love to spoil them, especially on their birthdays. But the pandemic has thrown all types of social celebration into purgatory.
T turned 10 this week. Her birthday consists of a boxed grocery store cake that the store won’t write her name on because to do so would mean they’d have to allow us to linger at the counter. We’re eating takeout pizza because Rosatti’s won’t deliver to our house. The entire birthday party consists only of T’s siblings, her mother, and us (because we really can’ have her friends and their families around us right now)? She’ll get a shopping spree on Amazon because so many retail options are closed for business right now?
We’ll do our best to make her time with us fun. And I hope she feels loved and appreciated. I hope that the reasons why we can’t go all out are not lost on her, that she understands that her birthday is no less special because it can’t happen with the reckless abandon of our 2019 approach to life.
Because we’re still getting cake. And we’re still buying gifts. And we’re still spending time together. And her mother took her to have he nails done (at possible the last nail-salon open in the area). And she is, most definitely, special to us that in every possible way.
Happy birthday to all of you who are celebrating under the restrictions of social distancing. Happy anniversary to all those couples committed for the long haul who can’t spend their precious moment by candlelight at a fancy restaurant. And congratulations all you seniors graduating high school and college whose final year has been cut short.
We grieve with you for the experiences that have been snatched out of your life experience. We walk with you through this phase of life and hope the disruptions are just temporary; that we’ll soon get a re-do of all these missed opportunities to celebrate with you.