Storyteller Jillian Pike
Linda is a 50 year old mother of three. As a mom her job is everything in the world, she takes care of her kids and cooks for them every Sunday when she host a family dinner including all of her kids and their significant others. In addition to being a mom, she is also a fifth grade teacher at Lakers Public Schools. She lives in a small town near the bottom of the thumb in Michigan. Linda says that she first heard of Covid-19 in January of 2020. When asked how her daily life changed she had this to say “My day to day life changed when the pandemic happened because as a teacher I had to switch to online learning which was a difficult task halfway through the year, it was also difficult because I teach elementary students who don’t have much knowledge about online learning as we never had to teach online before”. Trying to make light of the difficult times, Linda says that while the pandemic has been hard she has gained a few things about fifteen pounds to be exact and that she has not really lost anything due to the virus. The virus allows Linda to slow down and enjoy life with her family and focus her on all the things she has wanted to do around the house. Linda also wears masks when she goes out in public. One thing she has realized about masks is that they do bother her and make her feel uncomfortable, especially while at school when she can’t take it off at any point. Linda continues to say that throughout all the craziness that’s going on in the past year she has learned that remote teaching is not all that bad and it allows her to slow down, relax and enjoy life. Linda also says that she has had the virus and that it was uncomfortable but that she has good health and is thankful of that because she might not be doing so well if she was not blessed with that.
MIPandemicStory 