I hope you folks have all been able to survive this very difficult year. I wish I could greet each of you in person; second best is for me to cobble together an old-fashioned Christmas letter.
I have been quarantined since mid-March except for a few forays into the outside world. Beth does my grocery shopping and odd chores; once a week I drive over to their house for dinner with her, Mike, and Rachael.
We rented a house at Chautauqua in July and moved our cohort there for a week. Despite the pandemic,there were still sufficient amenities available to make it a very enjoyable vacation. The highlight of that week was a chance to ride on the Arcade and Attica Railroad one afternoon.
Our other major adventure this year was a trip with Beth in October for a ride on the Cuyahoga Scenic Railroad, through Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Any year that I get the opportunity to enjoy two scenic train rides has to be a success.
Although the discipline of the quarantine has been little more than an inconvenience to me, its effect on Beth’s family has been significant. Beth taught two courses each semester. The switch from in-person to remote in the middle of the Spring semester was particularly difficult for her. By the Fall term she was able to function effectively remotely, though she much prefers face-to-face contact.
Rachael was in the midst of the second half of her Sophomore year at Quaker Valley High School when everything normal suddenly changed. She elected to attend all her classes remotely and appears to have adjusted to this routine successfully.
Her musical career has been severely disrupted. We were all looking forward to a trip to New York where she would perform with the Three Rivers Young People’s Orchestra in March.
Since then she successfully auditioned for the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra and is now a member of their second violin section. Although all their practices have been remote, the Orchestra was able to present its Winter Concert on-line, by magically patching together individual videos filmed by each of the performers. A triumph of technology and expert musicianship.
Rachael’s violin teacher has managed to continue socially distanced in-person weekly lessons. Her piano lessons, however, are performed remotely.
Sara’s family is quarantined in Fort Collins, although Ian did spend the first semester at Boulder as a University of Colorado Freshman, mostly with remote classes. His final semester of high school was dramatically disrupted. We had a family “Zoom” celebration of his graduation, at which I gave an eloquent Commencement address.
Nora is now in tenth grade and Claire in seventh; their schools tried to include some in-person classes, but ended up with the girls at home, communicating remotely. Sara was comfortable working from home; fortunately they have found a way to permit her lab to function normally.
John was in this country when the pandemic peaked in China. He flew there and brought Lai An and Victoria here. Since then they have been tightly quarantined. Lai An (now seven years old) is being home schooled, with help from tutors in math, Chinese, and French. So far it has been effective; nonetheless I am concerned that she is missing out on socializing with other children at an age when this is important.
John apparently has been able to effectively manage his company via Zoom and other technological tools. The fact that Beigene has major offices across seventeen time zones makes it difficult to conduct remote meetings in real time; nonetheless they appear to coordinate their activities satisfactorily.
I managed to maintain some involvement with the University, remotely. Both semesters I was able to mentor a Senior Design Project team and participate in that program. I am impressed how well the students responded to the challenge of doing everything remotely.
Thanks to Beth’s “techie” help, our Book Club has managed to meet remotely each month successfully; I hope we can get back to in-person meetings eventually. I was able to meet my high school gang for brunch twice, outdoors, in the summer. I miss our normal bi-monthly get-togethers.
The biggest inconvenience for me has been the inability to attend Pittsburgh Symphony concerts. Otherwise my daily routine hasn’t been compromised too much. I enjoy getting out into our woods regularly and observing the change of the seasons.
Conventional wisdom is that 2020 has been one of the worst years in history. I am sure that is true for the families of the hundreds of thousands of people who have died as a result of complications related to Covid-19 and for the families whose breadwinners were employed by institutions whose activities have been curtailed by the pandemic.
Nonetheless this year has provided me with many things for which I am grateful. As my peers continue to pass on I realize how fortunate I am to have made it into my ninetieth year. I am grateful for my health and the fact that my mind is sound, enough of the time, for me to appreciate life.
I am grateful for the opportunity to walk in the woods every day, to see the trillium bloom in the Spring, the raspberries ripen in the summer, the maple leaves burst into flame in the Fall, and “the woods fill up with snow” in the Winter.
I am grateful for the consistent support I get from Beth and her family, and for the regular contact and love from Sara’s family and John’s.
I am grateful for the opportunity to communicate with you via this column. When TribTotalMedia suspended publication of the Signal-Item in March, I decided to continue to write a weekly column for my mailing list. As long as you enjoy it, I will meet with you each week.
I hope each and every one of you has a healthy and happy holiday season and that the New Year will be rewarding to all of us.