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Image 1970

Longwood Courtyard Gatherings 1

Wilberta Pickett

I have created a series of essays to represent my COVID experience which I am submitting as four separate entries. 1. Court Yard gatherings. Explaining how a group of neighbors managed to have some social time within the Coid restriction guidelines.
2. Journaling. Describing how a daily journal helped me cope with both the frustrations of Covid, and the anxiety of dealing with my husband's bad fall, recovery and death during that time.
3. Planning John's Memorial service. Describing how the negative side of months living through John's decline and death during Covid paved the way for resurrecting my spirits through planning through several more months a thoughtful celebration of his life during Covid.
4. Overcoming the loneliness of Covid and life without John through reaching out to others.

In our senior retirement community, my late husband and I lived in a group
of eight homes surrounding a large parking lot which we called “The
Courtyard.” To keep us safe from Covid, the management did not allow
inside group gatherings, making us feel isolated. Needing to have some sort
of social life, we courtyard residents decided to have monthly outdoor
gatherings in our courtyard, weather permitting.