At this time, my first day of school is set for Aug. 19. It's likely to be moved up, as we'll need extra training for whatever our new school day will look like.
If we return as normal, or with a hybrid-version that has kids come half-time (teachers teaching full time) for social distancing, I will be in contact with more people in a single week than I have in total since March 13.
If we go to online school, it will be mandatory and structured, stressful and time-consuming. I can do it, but I don't think I can do it AND take care of my parents at the same time.
This means that come August, isolating my parents in my basement will no longer be workable. They are here now because I can offer them a buffer to the world through hyper-vigilant minimizing of my own contact with others. That won't be the case if I'm back in the classroom.
The second reason they are here is to buoy them mentally and socially, since all their friends in their care facility are quarantined in their rooms. If I am teaching, I will no longer be able to spend an hour at breakfast listening to their stories. Or dream up mid-morning games and activities. Or spend a chunk of the afternoon fiddling with a jigsaw puzzle, playing bridge, or vacuuming Vern's dog hair.
The fact is we will need to go to Elderly Parents in a Pandemic Plan B in early August.
But we don't have a Plan B.
What we have are miserable options, each with drawbacks.
OPTION 1: Keep them here and quit my job, which I won't do.
OPTION 2: Move them back to Friendship Haven where they will face the same situation we moved them out of three months ago (except now there are at least two active cases of the virus on the campus--one resident, one worker).
OPTION 3: Move them in with one of my four siblings. The reason they are with me now is that I have the space, setup, and time (given that my school was cancelled) to accommodate them. The other four have varied and legitimate reasons they cannot house my parents.
Each day this quandary takes up more of my brain space. My parents were troopers in adjusting to their sudden uprooting in March. I do believe they feel at home in my basement now. I wish they could stay here until it is safe to move back to Friendship Haven, so they could avoid the turmoil of re-homing.
I need to begin conversations with my siblings about the plan for August, but five people arguing the pros and cons of three bad options sounds even worse than just struggling through it on my own. So for at least a couple more weeks, I'm biding my time.
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We read poems by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON this morning. We played three-handed bridge. We took a mid-afternoon popsicle break, worked on a new puzzle, walked around the yard, had lamb chops (lamb chops!) for supper, and talked about bats.
Enough.
Be well.
Write.
Allison
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