Storyteller: Connor Shoemaker
Kristie lives in Saginaw and is 47 years old. She had first heard about COVID-19 in early February when the scientist died of the disease in China. She is a dental hygienist, so, unfortunately, she was furloughed from the middle of March to the beginning of June. She enjoyed the time off of work, and it gave her time to do things around the house that she has wanted to do for a while but has never had the time to do. Now that she is back and working, she still has patients that call in and cancel because of COVID-19. She also has heightened safeguards while she is at work now.
One of the things that she has gained from COVID-19 is the importance of being around your friends and family. While not being able to gather for birthday parties or holidays, she said that she began to miss seeing friends and family and will not take it for granted when she is able to see them again. One of the things that she lost from COVID-19 was the freedom of not worrying when you are out in public. You have to stand six feet apart now and always try not to invade other spaces because you don’t want to get COVID-19. A sensory detail about her pandemic experience is that breathing can be difficult when you have a mask on. When she is at work, she has to wear a KN95 mask, a level one mask, and a face shield to protect her and her patient. This could make it extremely annoying to breathe and do her job. During this pandemic, the funny thing that happened to her was walking into a store and realizing she didn’t have a mask on because of all the people giving her weird looks. This pandemic has taught her to never take anything for granted because at the snap of the fingers, everything could be gone.
MIPandemicStory 