My COVID Stories: Life Goes On

How’s your 2021 so far? It is my 14th month into this pandemic and I thank God for His graces. I wish I can be a prolific blogger and write as often as my neurons transmit information to other cells in my body but the middle-aged woman in me just wanted to feed my brain with lots of sleep, carbohydrates and k-drama. When it comes to art and this blog, I follow no deadline. So here I am going through my photos and trying to tell a story of what happened in the last 108 days.

My anxiety meter comes from the Butuan City PIO Facebook Page. This is where my city posts its COVID statistics. I am a numbers person so I am hyper-aware when I see figures.

Mid-January statistics was okay.

So I found myself making up for lost time. We went to visit my family’s ‘mausoleum’. I have not visited my parents’ tomb in more than a year.

I went to see my nephew and niece. My niece was sweet that day. She was giving hugs and I needed lots of it.

I went to another niece’s birthday after.

The week after, I met my cousins for a trip to the mountain to feel some cool breeze.

Then, COVID hits the family. Two of my cousins tested positive for COVID-19.

This was my scared face as I was on videocall while Azenith was inside the ambulance en route to the hospital. She spent most of her February in quarantine.

Looking at my anxiety meter, there were lots of cases in February.

So I stayed home and pretended I was vacationing somewhere and this was the hotel lobby. Ha!

In reality, this is my aunt’s garage floor.

Feeling helpless over what was happening, I found a way to make meaningful contribution with just a little effort. There was this call for donations and I qualified since my hair was untreated and long.

I cut my hair short and donated it to Makati Med.

I only went out to buy essentials. Yes, potato chips are essential.

And even in my house clothes, color coordination is essential. Kidding!

Valentine’s came and it was a surprising one for me. My friend, Teram, sent three of us, her single friends, this cake. The english translation of the message on the cake is ” No boyfriend but loved by many”. It was a ribbing to my singlehood and I love it! Who does not love a free cake?

I spent most of my February painting.

By March, the number of cases dropped and my anxiety waned also.

We went to the beach to celebrate the healing of my cousins. Thank you, God, for their lives.

I pray for the people who lost their lives and I personally knew quite a few and it was heartbreaking.

There is something about being in an open space that calms my nerves.

I also went to see my teacher friends. Three are getting married, two bought new cars and two moved to their new home. What an impressive bunch!

My couple friends live in this awesome tiny house. I am so proud of them for building their first house.

I also found the part of the fence that my father donated when he still taught in this school. I think it was more than 50 years ago- way before I was born.

For the first time in my 43 years, I attended a debut. Finally, my friends’ daughter was able to celebrate her debut which was postponed for a year due to the pandemic.

Congrats to my friend, Cez, for successfully organizing the event.

It has been awhile since I last used my DSLR and my skills are a little bit rusty. My rusty skills are better than not having any photos taken so I said yes to shoot my friend’s sister’s wedding.

Holy week was fast approaching and cases in Metro Manila were rising and so was my anxiety. I stayed home for the Holy Week and did some spring cleaning (which I think needs a separate blog entry).

I celebrated Easter with a few of my relatives.

Oh, I went to my friend’s house blessing. Bam built a pad for her and her mother in her brother’s compound so that they can have their own space. We visited this space in November but I was not able to take pictures with me in it because we came from walking. My sweaty self was not camera-ready. I took pictures of our breakfast then and the cozy space. Look at that! You’d think I downloaded the photos from a magazine. So beautiful! I am so happy for Bam and Nanay.

Fast forward to 5 months after, I was able to finally pose for pictures in this awesome space.

I spent much of the first week of April cleaning. I still am not done but there are silver linings. My room is clean and organized. I got myself a new bed.