George and Kathy have lived and rented out apartments in this building for decades. The entire time, George’s older sister, Mary, lived in the unit above them. In recent years, Mary had been diagnosed with dementia, and required care that entailed the assistance of her brother and sister-in-law. In an effort to both make her happy and get her blood flowing, they would take her out to restaurants and treat her to other outings that did not require too much effort on her part. Theirs being a close-knit family, George and Kathy stepped up to the plate when Mary needed them most. 

In the early months of the pandemic, Mary developed symptoms that seemed very similar to those of COVID. Unable to get a proper diagnosis due to no doctor being able to come see her, she was diagnosed with complications from heart failure, and after a two-week illness, died at home on March 29th, 2020. 

In this clip, George and Kathy recount their experience after Mary got sick, and their role in taking care of her before she died. They go on to talk about the difficulties they experienced after she died, and how it impacted them. 

During the pandemic, both George and Kathy continued to work, but for Kathy, under much different circumstances. She had been employed in a hospital for over 20 years delivering vaccines to workers, among other employee-centric care duties. She became concerned about acquiring COVID from one of the workers that she would inevitably treat. Kathy had been considering retirement before the onset of the pandemic, but this made the decision simple. She signed all the paperwork for retirement, but was offered an opportunity to continue working part-time in a remote capacity; she accepted.  

Taking on this new position placed Kathy within her own home, all by herself while George continued to go to work. Her biggest concern during the transition was facing issues with her computer; at the hospital she could just have the I.T. department fix it, but at home, she depended on a more tech-savvy George, accessible only through a phone call. She began to miss her friends at the hospital, but couldn’t visit on a social call; it was far too busy. 

In this clip, Kathy talks about how she made the transition from working in the hospital to working from home, the loneliness it entailed, and how taking in Jo’s cat while she stayed in Austin, Texas helped her to cope with it. 

George began working at the post office in Queens as a mail carrier, but desired a job working in maintenance or engineering. Carrying mail proved to be a short-lived enterprise, as he worked his way up the ladder to achieve his goal, now handling maintenance for automated processing machinery. He takes pride in his job, as he views the mail service as an integral part of public services. When COVID hit and people began depending more and more on the delivery of packages of varying degrees of importance, from an Amazon impulse buy to life-preserving medications, George and his team were there to ensure that they were delivered. 

With the stay-at-home order in place, George recalls the monotony of going to and from work and nowhere else. He was never very concerned by crowded situations as he never came across them; each shift’s crew would give time and space for the previous one to clear out so as to prevent transmission between groups. George’s crew made a heightened effort to ensure they wouldn’t spread the virus, spot-cleaning their work stations before they went home.  

Recently, one of Kathy’s friends who remained working at the hospital reached out to her and said it feels like it’s been years since they’ve seen her. Kathy, who claims a distorted sense of time after the pandemic, responded, “For me it’s felt like two months.” She feels as if her mindset right after leaving the hospital has remained with her. George also admits that he has not seen some friends in two years, citing the pandemic as the main cause. George and Kathy’s friends shared an annual Christmas card exchange that saw the two send out close to one-hundred cards a season. Now, they say they’ve only received around twenty. 

While their friendships may change, the bond that they share remains strong. On Kathy’s working from home, George is happy to have her around more often. When they both worked in person, they rarely ever crossed paths for more than a few waking hours. Now, they have much more time to spend together. 

Vacation-goers, the two have traveled the world together. COVID derailed any plans for them to continue doing so, but they’ve acclimated. In this clip, Kathy recounts how COVID altered her retirement plans, and how they continued to experience exotic places from their couch.

From now on, George asserts, any vacation will have to be a road trip.
 

Back to Our Profiles