Living Solo During the Quarantine
If you’re retired and living alone, you’ll find that many of the days are the same as before the virus. I live alone with my dog Sadie, and love it. I take her for a couple of walks each day and sit on my front porch much of the afternoon, weather permitting, reading, talking to passers-by, dreaming….Around 5 PM, my neighbor Pat and I toast each other with a glass of wine across the driveway and shout our communications to each other.😊
Last week, six of us brought our own chairs and glasses of wine and sat 6 feet apart so we could catch up. I don’t think we’re going to be doing that again for quite a while. The most wonderful part of this time period is the connections with friends and neighbors. We cook for ourselves and each other. Dishes on the front porch are followed by a phone call, “dinner’s on the front porch!” Yesterday, Shelly cooked grilled salmon and lemon spiced asparagus. My neighbor Pat made a chicken stew and left a nice big cup of it for me. On Sunday I made my friend Kate’s Special recipe for sausage and Kale soup – lots of potatoes and carrots, black beans and onions — and gave to several friends. Cooking for one is nearly impossible.
People I haven’t talked to in years have called to say they’re thinking of me and it’s wonderful to reconnect. I feel very loved. Last weekend I tried to connect via zoom with my brother and nephews, but none of us knew enough about the technology to have a coherent conversation. We did have a lot of laughs and promised to connect again this week.
I’m also watching too much HGTV and Ancient Aliens as a way of avoiding the same news every day! I was hoping this might be a good time to work on my 3rd book, but alas, I’m stymied for the time being. I hope you all are well and staying home and staying safe.
Janet Holloway is an author, motivational speaker and entrepreneur. After sixteen years in small business development as State Director of both the New Jersey and Kentucky Small Business Development Center Networks, she decided it was time to start her own enterprise. This was the beginning of Women Leading Kentucky, a non-profit that fosters leadership opportunities for women and scholarships for women attending KY colleges/universities.
Janet is an active member of the boards of Athens West Theater and The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning. In addition to publishing many articles, she has released two memoirs: A Willful Child, and Leaving … Sometimes You Have to Leave.
Janet received her B.A. from Marshall University, an MSW from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and is ABD from Columbia University. She lives in Lexington KY with her rescued Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Sadie.
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