Love in the Time of Corona
In Dedication to Lily, Findlay and Brian.
Buzzfeed told me that I would find my soulmate tomorrow. Obviously, someone forgot to give them the memo about Corona. It’s become a daft tradition that a group of close friends and I have found ourselves doing whilst we’ve been separated. We have to fill the gaps in our uneventful love life somehow! Truthfully, I think I got the golden ticket of corona lockdowns- I’m young, childless and unattached. Not to mention I have a garden to escape to. That’s it boys- get lining up. But you know…don’t. Besides having to study for my degree, this lockdown has been more comfortable for me than most. I am honestly so grateful for the lack of attachments because I already miss the people I have so much. I couldn’t handle anymore and my heart goes out to anyone that has been separated from the ones they love at such difficult times as these.
You see those Facebook posts and tweets of elderly couples separated by glass because one of them is in a care home and at high risk. Or the families of key workers that are torn apart since they bring the threat of infection back home with them every day. They’re stories that you think Nicholas Sparks must have written because there is no way that the world could be that cruel. Don’t get me started on families that cannot grieve the loss of their loved ones in the way that they deserve. Saying goodbye is hard enough but not being allowed to say it at all is unimaginable. I don’t know about you but I have to turn off my phone at points during the day. I’ve often felt a duty to read all of these horrendous stories. Who am I to brush past them when they are the ones that have experienced the real loss? They deserve to have their stories told and read. The problem is, if I read every single heart-wrenching story, it will do one of two things- or both. I will either never be able to get out of bed in the morning, so broken down by the cruelty of the world around me and sure there are days that I feel like that. Or I will feel nothing at all and I’m not sure what is worse.
The real agonising consequence of that would be that I won’t be able to see all of the amazing things going on in the world, all of the beauty and love that persists even in times like these, in the times of Corona. I won’t pretend to have come up with this play on words, it’s not exactly Márquez, but it gets the point across. Just like in ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’, love persists. Just as Florentino and Fermina communicate by telegram when they are separated, we have …zoom parties and TikTok. So, pretty much the same thing. I have read endless feel-good stories of people dating across rooftops over Facetime or who have even sent love letters to each other. It’s so beautiful and almost makes you think that Buzzfeed might even have a shot. Almost.
Regardless, no-one will be left untouched by this virus. That much we know. What we can do, however, is take these stories forward and remember them. Take a moment, a thought or a prayer for the people that have lost someone. Help where we can by checking in on our friends, family and neighbours for even a pub quiz or two. Volunteer for a stranger and express our thanks to the people, who day in and day out, put their lives and health at risk to protect the rest of us. In other words, let this virus count for something. Let it be an opportunity to reexamine our priorities- to cast away our obsession for material things, for the possessions and excursions that ultimately weigh very little. Let this absence from family and friends allow us to find other ways to express how much we care about them. Since just because we cannot see them or be with them does not mean that that love isn’t there.
