Kate, Bay City

Kate is 41 years old and lives in Bay City, Michigan. She was a part-time waitress who was laid off from her work during the early days of the Pandemic. Initially, the virus had an unpredictable spread which caused many restaurants to close their doors. Kate was offered her position back a few weeks later when her previous employer reached out to her, but she declined. As the seriousness of the situation became more apparent to her, Kate became more concerned about spreading the virus among her family and had resigned to keeping away from people living outside of her household as much as possible. She followed the guidelines and more. Kate would only leave the house to buy supplies and nothing else. After returning from the store, she would leave her shoes outside, wipe everything down, and would take a shower immediately. She also pulled her daughter out of school a few days before Governor Whitmer enforced it. Later, she became less strict with handling the pandemic, although she continues to follow many of the guidelines. Kate now spends her time taking walks in nature, gardening or hanging out with her family. Kate considers herself lucky that the Covid virus has not stolen the life of anyone close to her. Nobody in her family has caught the virus, which is more than likely because they have followed the Covid-19 regulations that were put into place. Although Kate has been faithful to these restrictions, she still struggles to breathe under her mask and she misses being able to see the smiles of people she passes in public and wants to communicate with people outside her household without having to worry about catching and spreading the illness.