No going home for the holidays for Newfoundland woman
Lindsay Harding left Newfoundland almost a decade ago to pursue a Ph.D. in linguistics at York University.
But without fail, each year she has come home for Christmas in St. John’s.
“I’d spend at least a week, maybe two weeks there. I’d see family on Christmas Day, of course, and visit family on other days between Christmas and New Year’s,” she says.
“One of my sisters has four kids, so a big part of Christmas Day would be spending time with the kids. Christmas back home in Newfoundland, it was all about going home to see family and trying to make time to see a few friends as well, if I could, before heading out of town again.”
Newfoundland has some of the most restrictive COVID regulations in Canada. As a non-resident, Harding is unable to go back home this Christmas, and there are a lot of people for her to miss.
“I come from a big family, and both my parents come from big families, and so I’ve got tons of aunts and uncles and cousins,” says Harding.
“Now a lot of my cousins have their own kids, so Christmas has always been all about getting as many opportunities as you can to get the whole family together on both sides. It’s a different kind of a thing not being able to have that for the first time this year.”
Despite the hardship, Harding is willing to get behind the rules if it means as many of those relatives as possible are still alive when she’s able to come home again.
“As much as it disappoints me, I understand it completely and I support it completely in terms of wanting to see all those family members that I have back in Newfoundland stay safe, you know,” says Harding.
“Especially the majority of my older relatives being in Newfoundland, I’m just as happy to see them not have any community spread for as long as possible.”
Harding does have a sister who lives in Toronto. She’s a doctor, so she’s had to be very strict about who she can be in contact with. In order to spend time with her sister over Christmas, Harding would need to self-isolate for two weeks. Because she lives with roommates, it’s not possible for her to isolate in her own home. But she has a plan.
Two of her friends got travel exemptions to go to Newfoundland and need a housesitter. In the world of COVID-19, it’s the perfect self-isolation station.
“We figure it will be relatively safe if I am able to fully self-isolate for weeks before Christmas to be able to actually see each other face-toface,” says Harding.
While the sisters have seen each other since the pandemic, all other occasions were outside and socially-distanced.
“I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to see her face-to-face, indoors, after a few weeks of self-isolation.”