This spring break was one for the books.  The history books!  Our country, as well as the rest of the world, is dealing with a pandemic, a cornoavirus called Covid-19.  This has caused our world here in California to go into a social distancing, stay at home situation.  By staying at home, we can all help to flatten the curve so that hospitals can help those who are ill and also have other health problems in addition to the virus.  If they get too busy then they can’t help everyone and that is not OK!  The curve refers to the about the amount of sick people versus the capacity of the hospitals.  We need to keep the sick people numbers below the hospital capacity.  This way everyone can be treated in the way that they need.  It has been interesting watching the public response to “stay at home”.  For some this has meant they stockpiled toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and paper towels.  Then it moved on to clearing all the shelves in the supermarket so nobody could get the basics like eggs, milk, potatoes, bread, canned soup and veg, etc.  I am hopeful that the hoarding will stop as I feel that it is very selfish of people to clean out things so that others cannot get what they need.  Stay at home just means to stay at home, but you can still go to the store when you need to get items.  For me, staying at home has not been hard as I am quite the homebody.  I am content to go into the garden and enjoy the sunshine and pull a few weeds and work on other things.  When it heats up next week I will be working outside on my laptop and enjoying the weather.  It is hard not seeing my friends, but we have been texting and talking on the phone.  It is also hard not seeing my parents as much.  I am struggling with not being able to see them as they are in a different household and I don’t want to spread anything to them.  I have seen them a few times but I am thinking that is going to have to stop even though we kept out distance.  That would be awful to give them the virus!  Anyway…we will do the best we can and get through this grand adventure by supporting one another and making the best of the weirdest situation I think all of us have ever experienced!

My name is Susan Mary.

My first name means lily or rose. When my mum was growing up she had a doll that said “mama” when you turned it upside down and the right side up. She always had on a pretty blue dress and I played with it when I was a little girl when at my granny and granda’s house in Biggar, Scotland. This doll was named Susie and that is what I am named after. I now have this doll but she no longer speaks.

My middle name is the same as my mum’s and my godmother’s. My godmother is my mum’s cousin. We all get this middle name from my granny who was named Mary. Everyone called her Maisie. She was lovely. We used to colour when I would visit and so now when I see a collection of coloured pencils, I think of her. I flashback straight to about the age of five or six. When we would colour in the flowers, we would make each petal a different colour. We also scrapbooked with the paper people that had the paper clothing with the tabs.