Coping with coronavirus: Stories of everyday life

We invite you to join other South Florida Sun Sentinel readers in sharing what life is like under the cloud of coronavirus, the most severe public health crisis in more than 100 years. Send your stories, of no more than 300 words, to letters@sunsentinel.com. Please include your name, city of residence and telephone number for verification purposes. We will be updating this feature regularly.

A brisket, a basket

A few days ago, I walked into a Publix and found milk, lettuce, bananas, potatoes and a brisket. I was in ecstasy. I felt as if I had discovered gold. Yesterday I walked into a Walmart and found toilet paper. I felt as if I had found diamonds. These feelings are crazy.

Happiness today is finding meat, chicken, fruits, vegetables and paper products in your local supermarkets.

I used to exercise by playing tennis, golfing and swimming, but my senior community closed the courts and the pool. I am very hesitant about playing golf because you must sit next to someone in the cart as well as handling the flagstick. Thank God my wife and I are well. I can only hope that things get better.

Howard Weinstein, Lake Worth

Karate and the coronavirus

A shout-out needs to go instructors at Kick Fit Martial Arts in Cooper City. When ordered to close on Friday, March 20, many kids were greatly disappointed. Their belt-level testing was to begin Friday night and Saturday. The instructors came to the homes of the kids and tested them in their driveways! My grandson, Jakey, 10, proudly received his yellow belt. These instructors are not just teaching skills, they are teaching children.

Dara Malamud, Cooper City

Disappointed with Costco

Costco is advertising senior shopping hours from 8 to 9 a.m. Monday thru Friday. However, when I got to the store in Pembroke Pines at 8:25 this morning, the store was filled with throngs of shoppers, very few of whom were elderly. I questioned the employee at the door, who informed me that only 80 seniors showed up, so they opened the store to everyone. They obviously had no need to do this as the elderly are the ones most susceptible to this horrible disease, yet when the number who showed up did not meet the criteria they felt necessary to offer this program they just kicked it to the curb. Very disappointed in Costco. I left.

Harold M. Malin, Weston

‘I was on my own’

I returned from New York City back to Hollywood the day after COVID-19 exploded in the headlines as a pandemic and markedly into our lives. As a senior with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, I was concerned because I felt sick and immediately called my doctor thinking I could get tested just as I had read about others: celebrities, athletes, politicians.

The office told to me to call the Broward County Department of Health, where I was on hold for 45 minutes. The agent first told me to call my doctor. I explained the situation: senior, COPD, air travel, cold symptoms. And I asked them to take my info and have someone call me back from the Broward County Department of Health.

It’s a week later and no one has called. I came to understand that the COVID-19 outbreak also took Florida by surprise. There were no systems in place, no testing available, and no resources for information. I was on my own.

So I began self-isolating. Knowing my cold-like symptoms and COPD cough would scare my neighbors, I stay away from everyone. I no longer believe I have the virus and, also, am unwilling to wait 4-5 hours at a pop-up testing site. I wear a mask when food shopping, again, so my symptoms don’t scare others. I have not been able to buy toilet paper or disinfecting wipes and am running out.

The impact of COVID-19 is enormous and will continue to be. As an individual, I didn’t know whether I would live or die. As a society, who will live, and who will die?

When our government first learned about the virus, steps should have immediately been taken to deal with the pandemic. Response times and efforts are not 21st century. There was no preparedness, and no coordination with states and the federal government. No one’s life will be untouched.

Michele Sherriton, Hollywood

Radio show must go on

Today, we did something on Florida’s Jewish radio show that we have never had to do in the past 33 years. Shalom South

Florida has been providing the local community with quality music, news, community announcements and prizes for over three decades, and this morning, we asked our listeners for financial support.

Most of our regular sponsors are in the entertainment, service and sports realms and therefore had to pull their sponsorship during this crisis. But the show must go on, so we offered our empty commercial slots to the four local Jewish federations and four Jewish Family Service agencies. We called our small-business sponsors and offered them free commercials, our longtime advertisers the ability to make Public Service Announcements, and a new upstart Jewish film-streaming service (ChaiFlicks) the ability to kick off its service during this time of isolation, all at no cost.

We don’t take our responsibility as the local Jewish community radio show lightly, and are here to provide comfort to our listeners and a mouthpiece to the various community organizations. We probably won’t be able to continue broadcasting Shalom South Florida much longer without paying sponsors, but we are here for the community, for now.

Roni Raab, Host & Producer, Shalom

South Florida