By Barb Arland-Fye
Editor
Searching The Catholic Messenger’s website for a story to illustrate this week’s Opinion Page editorial took me on an unexpectedly emotional journey through our coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic, which began five years ago.
Reading the stories, columns and editorials written about the pandemic as it unfolded caused me to reflect on how the pandemic shaped the person I am today. Some of the memories are painful, some are humorous and some are uplifting.
I remember visiting my friend Elise at the nursing home, each of us on opposite sides of the glass entryway. I wanted to give Elise a hug but that was not possible. During one visit, for Elise’s birthday, she wore a comical badge she received for her birthday. It read, “Quarantine Queen!” We laughed at the funny but not so funny “sign” of the times. In the weeks before Elise died, after pandemic restrictions ended, we gave each other a hug at her bedside.
New words and phrases entered our lexicon during the pandemic, such as COVID-19, social distancing, masking, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), essential workers, Zoom and virtual meetings. Many of the words have slipped away but all remain in our history. Some words fueled alienation.
“Zoom” is among the words I have grown to appreciate and dread, alternately. The technology allowed us to gather virtually when it was not possible to meet in person. My Emmaus group, whose members continue to meet via Zoom, found it to be a godsend. Still, we longed to get together, in person, because that’s the best way for friends to connect!
Seven months after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic (March 11, 2020), I wrote an editorial making an analogy between getting through the pandemic and training for a marathon. “Runners prepare months in advance to run a marathon and develop strategies to get them through the demanding 26.2-mile event. Health experts and scientists caution us that getting through the COVID-19 pandemic is going to be a marathon, not a sprint.”
I think the analogy works because of the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energy we expended. Whatever our role in life — from babies to senior citizens — we ran the race and many of us leaned into our faith. Many of us reached out to others who needed a hand along the way, who were struggling for life in the hospital, who were lonely and depressed or were grieving the loss of a loved one who died.
Among the inspiring stories that we shared with you:
- Roni Pianca’s steadfast faith as she and her close-knit family journeyed 94 days through her late husband Rick’s fight with COVID-19 (Dec. 3, 2020).
- David Sloan’s journey to the Catholic Church, which included an emergency baptism in the nursing home where he was living, four years after he suffered a spinal cord injury (May 14, 2020).
- Deacon Kent Ferris, then a deacon candidate, organized a small gathering for Morning Prayer outside a nursing home to pray for residents, staff and all persons affected by COVID-19 (Aug. 20, 2020).
- Parish nurse Patty Riefe baked a rhubarb pie for a couple on one of her socially distanced visits. The pie contained rhubarb that the husband had shared with Riefe from his garden (Feb. 4, 2020).
Reflecting on these stories and my personal experiences reinforces my commitment to focus on building bridges, bringing us together. That is how the pandemic has shaped me. As the Apostle Paul tells us, “God has so constructed the body … so that there may be no division in the body, but the parts may have the same concern for one another. If [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy” (1 Cor. 12:24-26).
(Contact Barb Arland-Fye at arland-fye@davenportdiocese.org)
