Dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic when one lives alone can be difficult enough–but when a couple or family are involved, there are distinctly different dynamics and hurdles to navigate.
Evette Cardona: I had started to work from home while Mona retired so, in that way, it sort of worked. We were pretty fortunate. I’m blessed to be in a job where I could work from home. [Cardona is vice president of programs at Polk Bros. Foundation.] We came home on March 10 and on March 13, I went to work and picked up my laptop—intending to work from home for two or three weeks. But I’ve only been back twice. It was nice to be together, but we didn’t get to do all the traveling we thought we’d do once she retired.
MN: We kept wearing masks and never touched them. Whenever we had to do something for them, we wore masks—and got [others] to wear masks.
To this day, I’m not sure how I caught it. I wore masks and Mona actually makes masks. I washed my hands constantly but I don’t know—someone sneezes across the street and the wind picks it up and maybe I got it that way. But once we had it, we felt we had some protection. When we traveled in January, O’Hare and the plane were empty and we were pretty lucky. Now we’re both fully vaccinated, so we’re thinking about traveling some more.
And after you got vaccinated, did you two have any similar effects?
MN: I know it’s hard to imagine the fear or anxiety that you have potentially infected your family—and, for me, that fear was terrifying. So I just want to say that you should get vaccinated to protect those who are more vulnerable—and we don’t really know who that is. You think it’s someone who’s older, but plenty of younger people have suffered.
