This area has a ton of loose dogs – I’m not sure if they’re owned or stray or some feral mix of the two. We didn’t allow her (or her many fleas) inside the house, but if you were outside she was in your lap or pressed against your legs. At first we thought it was injured as it slithered along the ground toward you – why wasn’t it standing up? Maybe its back legs didn’t work? But once you laid a friendly hand on the dog’s head and spoke kindly to it, the dog stood up and pressed herself to your body, trying to close any distance between the two of you.Īnd that’s how things stayed throughout the weekend. As we hauled things out of the car, a little black and white dog came from nowhere, belly-crawling its way to you. We pulled up the gravel and dirt driveway and parked in front of the house to unload. It was too chilly to swim, and you came along begrudgingly. There was a gap in our trips to the river house during the height of renovations, so when we brought you to the river last weekend it was your first visit in a while. You’ll get it when you’re old like your ma and pa.īut in the heat of the summer, the river is also a great playground with lots more to do than tree-gazing, and we had a great time playing together. “I don’t get why you like to just stare at the trees…” you say.
You have some mixed feelings about this place – you feel like there’s nothing to do here, which for us is exactly the point. We bought an old river cabin out in the country to renovate as a weekend getaway. In mid-summer, with all travel curbed for the foreseeable future, we focused our wanderlust closer to home and took on a bit of a project. Horses make for good social distancers and it was a fun day. You’re absolutely obsessed with that city and were starving to see it, and he parked just long enough for you to jump out of the car for a couple of pics on Broadway with Jones.įor your 14th birthday, there were no trips or parties, but we booked a horseback ride with a local farm and your BFF Lola got to ride, too. Uncle Dave earned extra bonus points on his portion of the long road trip, making a detour through NYC just for you. As a compromise and to give you a change of scenery and time with cousins, your sweet Aunt and Uncle took you in for a little while, meeting us halfway between Savannah and Boston twice to make the exchange. To wear a mask or no? To see family and friends or no? In-person school or no? People took sides and pointed fingers in every direction – us included.Īnd always at the heart of these decisions – how can we keep our people safe while also keeping ourselves sane? What little joys can we give ourselves without risking the lives of the people we love?Īnd we have found some joy, and these joys should be chronicled, too.Īs cases surged in the summer, we had to cancel your plan to be a counselor at the local theater camp. If this pandemic would be with us for a long while, what risks were we willing to take? How would we respond to this new reality? I especially miss hugging people.Īs spring dragged into summer and then fall, we began making choices – not just us, but everyone around us. We miss going to the movies and restaurants. We miss dinner parties and sleepovers and vacations and church services and school. Now, almost 10 months later, hundreds of thousands of people are dying and we are still stuck in survival mode. Those 15 days loomed large at first, but it soon became apparent that this crisis would not be over in 15 days. Initially, the government asked us all to quarantine for 15 days to slow to spread of the epidemic. I held on to some hope that we’d be through the worst of it by then. But I didn’t let myself think too much about the fall and beyond.
We were focused on the end of your 8th grade year, the survival of two small businesses, grieving the loss of our summer plans, and – above all – trying to stay healthy. When I first wrote to you about the pandemic back in May, I hadn’t really let myself think this far ahead. These are wonderful things.īut these things are set in a personal and national context of persistent suffering and fear and uncertainty. We can buy the things we need and some of the things we want. We have food in the pantry and a roof over our heads. Our immediate family members are healthy. This is the most bizarre, unsettling, and frustrating time. Hello sweet girl – it’s been a while, huh? I’ve started and stopped several letters to you over the last few months, but each time I try to find the right words to describe what it’s like to be here and now in 2020, I freeze. Posted: NovemLetter to Camille: The Good, The Bad, and The Puppy