Easter During the COVID-19 Pandemic

It was really just about a month ago when life changed dramatically for most of us.

That was when the impact of the coronavirus pandemic began to hit us with the closure of so many businesses and it was four weeks ago today when Gov. Murphy announced that all public and private schools in New Jersey would be closed as of March 18.  When he made that announcement only two people had died in the state. That number has now reached 2,350.

I don’t know about you but the last month seems more like half a year.  Time seems to be moving slower than usual and many have trouble remembering what day it is. They all seems to be the same.  It’s sort of a real-life version of the movie “Groundhog Day.”

Sunday was Easter and you had to really go out of your way to make it feel like that.  Family get-togethers were done via Zoom or Skype or maybe a drive by version in which baskets were left and greetings were done using social distancing.

It was clearly very different but if you tried you could have your own small version of a celebration.  Several local restaurants prepared Easter dinners to go and while you might have been dining with four instead of a dozen or more it was still nice to be with the ones you love the most.

There are small glimmers of hope that maybe we are starting to get on the other side of this thing but we’ve still got a long way to go.  I expect that as early as this week we’ll get word that schools will not be re-opening for this academic year which will be a blow to high school seniors who have already missed out on so much.

Gone will be any thoughts of a senior prom and other celebrations but hopefully there will be some way to salvage some form of a graduation ceremony even if it’s later in June. That expected announcement will also put an end to any hope of a spring sports season which will just be more bad news on top of a growing pile.

This last month has really dragged. Let’s hope the next month goes a bit faster.

Stay healthy my friends!