Will Work for Toilet Paper
Reflections on a totally bizarre year
If someone had told me 2 years ago that I would be standing in line with about 45 other people, waiting patiently to buy a 24 roll package of toilet paper, I wouldn’t have believed them. I also wouldn’t have believed I would pay $27 for it, just because it was the last on the shelf.
This is America after all, not Russia. We go where we want, we eat what we want and stores are stocked from the floor to the ceiling with things to buy, both necessary and frivolous.
Enter 2020.
At the end of February I started hearing about this new virus that was spreading rapidly in China ,on of all the places, the weather channel. They showed people out in public with face masks on, what a strange site. Hospitals and doctors offices were swarmed with people infected with this virus that no one could explain.
Symptoms like physicians had never seen, immediate loss of taste and smell. Trouble breathing, confusion, chest pain, pale blue skin and a myriad of other ailments, some common, some abnormal. It was spreading rapidly and there was no cure or vaccine. 900 people had already died in China.
I remember thinking, “this is the 21st century, how could no one have the answer to this?”
I think the turning point for me, was in March when the passengers aboard the Carnival cruise ship tested positive and weren’t allowed to return to The United States. A few days later on March 11, the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
At 36, I had already survived various outbreaks before. SARS, the swine flu, the bird flu, when EBOLA made a comeback, but nothing could have prepared me for this. I don’t think anyone was prepared.
March 16th was my children's last day of in person learning, as the Governor of Illinois, my home state, had declared that schools and all non essential businesses were to close. Businesses and restaurants in this state and many others went dark and stayed that way for 87 days. Thousands of people were now unemployed and they had no idea when they could return to work, if even at all.
Watching the news, I caught the end of the most unusual story. Stores were reporting higher than normal purchases of what? Toilet paper of all things. Grown men fighting each other to get down the aisles to score what had now become a hot commodity only to find the shelves were already empty.
The news media really didn’t help during this time either as they kept reporting on shortages and some stations even wagered a guess on what would be sold out next. Was it going to be Clorox wipes, paper towels, meat, canned goods, no one had any idea.
I made a trip to stock up for my family and it was a surreal moment. People with 2 and 3 carts full of toilet paper and bottled water. Entire shelves were empty and people grocery bills totaling $100s. The panic had officially hit the U.S. and no one was spared.
On March 21st, Illinois followed the direction of a few other states in issuing a stay at home order. It was like I had been transported to a communist country. We were now being told where we could and could not go. While my family had no objections to staying at home, it was still shocking to say the least.
Because I have to cross the state line to go to work, I now needed a letter from my employer deeming me an essential employee. My office staff was reduced to about 25% as everyone began working from home. The quiet took me months to get used to.
The phone stopped ringing, and meetings went virtual. Zoom became the most used program that no one had ever heard of. Social distancing became the theme of 2020.
As April and May passed, people began to speculate, or maybe hope, that the warmth of the summer months would drive COVID cases down to a more manageable number. Any hope that we had was quickly dashed as the CDC announced that 100,000 had died from COVID at the end of May.
As we struggled to find any sort of guidance from our President, the U.S. reached 2 million cases not even 2 weeks later in June. Whether he was unprepared or just uninterested, President Trump gave no support to the American people. Hundreds of thousands of people died waiting for him to take this seriously.
We needed a leader and not a coward. The American people were scared and we needed our President to come forward and offer any sort of guidance. We needed someone to tell us it was going to be okay, even if that wasn’t the case. We needed something, Mr. Trump said nothing.
In July, someone tested positive at my office.
Just as I had began getting used to new routines and what was the new normal, I felt everything was going to shift once again. I thought I had gotten over the initial shock that was COVID-19, but once again I was scared just like the first day I heard about it.
I have never prayed so hard for anything in my entire life. Only 1 person in my office has had COVID-19.
Masks became a requirement then and I began wearing mine all day, every day at work. People rolled their eyes and complained, but here we followed the rules. I wish I could say the same for everywhere, as there are still some who refuse to wear a mask even after a year of dealing with this pandemic.
August, September and October all passed as we navigated life with new restrictions. Restaurants opened and then closed again several times in my state as the numbers would fall and then spike rapidly. Halloween was outside trick or treating only for my kids, and many others decided to forego the tradition all together.
As November and December flashed by, we spent the holidays reminiscing about the past years events at single digit gatherings. Grandparents and other loved ones had to send gifts and watch children open them via Facetime. My heart broke for those who were forced to spend the holidays alone last year because they were immunocompromised or sick.
As I said goodbye to what was, by far, the strangest year of my life, news of a promising vaccine began circulating. People began to see a little glimmer of hope as vaccines starting rolling out in 2021.
On February 22, 2021, I was fortunate enough to be waiting in line to get a Pfzier vaccine as I learned the United States had reached 500,000 COVID-19 deaths. It felt like such an ironic moment. As I was waiting, hopeful to get what could tame this awful monster, the U.S. was mourning the loss of half a million people
Half a million people.
Getting vaccinated is a matter of personal opinion, but for me, it seemed like an obvious choice. Getting COVID scares me much more than any possible side effects.
Of course I know we are not out of the woods yet as there are many, many more people who need vaccinated. And I know there are now new variants circling the globe and only time will tell how effective the vaccine is against those.
But I am think there is light at the end of the tunnel. I don’t think anyone could have seen this coming. But my hope, is that after all we’ve been through, the American people have at least learned something. I hope that we can be more prepared if something like this every happens again, so that half another half a million don’t have to die in vain.