Sara is a 50 year old mother of two who has been working as a pharmacist at the VA for 8 years. Although she is a frontline worker and carried on working through the pandemic, her life didn’t change drastically. She does suspect her life won’t ever be exactly the same after everything though.
When she first heard on the news about the disease ripping through China she wasn’t worried about it, and she never truly became worried until she caught wind of some patients in her hospital coming in with the disease. After this she became much more aware of her surroundings, she started to acknowledge that whatever she may be touching around her could cause her to spread the disease further. As a result she even started distancing herself from her family in fear of exposing them. She explains that during lockdown she was the only family member actively leaving the house, which only added to her fears. Sara describes the main problem she noticed the most about the pandemic is how dry she feels her hands always are. Because she works in the healthcare field and spends most of her days touching products that will be sent out to patients, she doesn’t like to risk the spread. This means along with using hand sanitizer, she was also washing her hands up to 10 times a day. She even refers to hand lotion as her bestest friend throughout the pandemic.
In the end, Sara learned to appreciate the little things in life, dinners with friends, leaving the house, and touch in general. At one point she expressed how one of the hardest things to come from the pandemic has been not being able to hug those around her. She hopes that eventually things like shaking a hand or giving a hug won’t have an underlying danger.
MIPandemicStory 