Anyone see this coming?  A week ago, we were living our lives.  Our kids went to school.  Madi tried out for Badminton and Ali went swimming with her class.  I headed into city with a friend to do an agility seminar.  We knew that we had to be careful, but I think even then most of us really didn’t understand the scope of what was coming.  For weeks Jason and I have been reminding the girls to practice good hygiene, we’ve been considering taking them off the bus and wondering when or if we would need to start isolating Ali. 

Suddenly the world changed.  In the blink of an eye we are all living in isolation.  We are afraid to take our kids out of our houses, there is no school or activities and everything is closing.  Every time I get notification that something that I have come to depend on is shutting its doors, a little piece of me panics.  There is so much uncertainty and we are now all tasked with the responsibility of keeping the people around us alive.  We need to work together to keep the people around us that are more vulnerable from getting sick and suddenly this well-oiled machine that Jason and I have become in order to keep Ali alive needs everyone’s help to keep her safe. 

In our household we are not strangers to hiding from viruses (or scary near-death experiences for that matter).  In the last 10 years, we have become very efficient at keeping Ali safe and at avoiding hospitals, doctors and calling 911 (which sometimes is quite the miraculous feat),  This is different and I can’t say it enough, we can’t keep her safe alone this time.  We are painfully aware that in many countries, they have had to make the decision to stop treating patients with comorbidities.  This means Ali.  This means that if Ali gets sick, they may not treat her if they don’t have the capacity and we know that without a lot of support this virus could kill her.  It’s exactly the kind of illness she struggles the most with.  So, when you’re inviting your neighbor’s kids over for a playdate,  huddled in a group outside your office socializing or going to your regularly scheduled, non emergent appointments or classes please remember that despite the fact that you’re not worried for yourself, you could be killing your parents, your child’s teacher, the lady that helped you at the grocery checkout,  one of the many workers who are essential for keeping us all fed and warm or Ali. I know it’s hard and I know it’s scary, but we need to do this together.  Please remember how vital social distancing is.  When this ends and we’re all safe, you will be so glad you did to still have all the people you love.