Danielle is a 33-year-old housekeeper at St. Mary’s and my best friend. She first heard about COVID towards the end of February 2020 and how it was affecting our country in March of 2020. For her the biggest day to day change that she has had to endure was the many different changes in the schooling. One minute her kids would be remote and the next minute they would go face to face. Only to have to switch back to remote learning. Which she describes as quite hard when she has 3 children in all different grades. Along with homeschooling, she was still working.
For Danielle, one of the biggest gains was realizing how short life can be and how you should not take it for granted. Also, I am sure a lot of people would agree with her, that the stimulus checks were a big help in times of financial burden. Many people that had either lost their jobs or their hours were cut short really benefited from the help. With all the gains, come losses as well. The biggest loss was her sense of freedom. Being on lockdown, having curfews, and having to quarantine basically made people feel like they were in prison.
The masks have become quite a nuisance for a lot of people. She has to wear her mask all day at work, which can get extra hot since she is always on the move. There are so many precautions that a housekeeper has to take in order to clean the rooms of a COVID patient.
For her, the pandemic has taught her that we take everything for granted. She has learned over the course of COVID to appreciate even the smallest things. During the first part of the pandemic lockdown, she was able to create some great memories and have some laughs with the people closest to her.
MIPandemicStory 