That last ‘normal’ thing you did before the world fell apart
A year ago, Crystal Piscitelli took her six-year-old son on a trip to Edmonton to see his grandfather.
She and Franklin enjoyed the plane ride and the visit with Muriel Pare, then 84, who lives in a retirement home.
“We also spent time at the West Edmonton Mall, visited the conservation aquarium, ate at restaurants and rode on the train in the amusement park,” Crystal, who lives in Kitchener, told me.
It was a four-day trip at the beginning of March. There were no masks on the plane. It was the last “normal” thing they would do before the COVID-19 virus sent them into a different place.
“This does not seem like a year ago,” Crystal said. “It feels like 10 years ago.”
As we get ready for the oneyear mark of being prisoners to this virus, I think many of us have that memory of the last thing we did before we realized what was coming at us.
For me, a singer in the Grand Philharmonic Choir, I remember performing in a concert on March 7, 2020 (Buxtehude’s “Membra Jesu Nostri”) at Trillium Lutheran Church in Waterloo.
After the concert, some of us went out for a drink. Chatting and laughing around a table: such an ordinary pleasure.
Another singer, Lisa MacColl, remembers the choir’s last rehearsal on March 9 before it all shut down. The streets were icy that night, so she walked very carefully.
“Had I known it was my last respite I would have paid less attention to my footing, and more to the people,” she wrote. “And this milestone is hitting me hard.”
I asked others on social media about their last “normal” experience.
They responded by describing a family dinner party. Tea or lunch with a friend. Hugging their grandchildren. An International Women’s Day dinner. Mother and daughter, taking in a show together. A trip to Chicago, sampling the city’s best restaurants. Going to church and receiving communion.
Every single answer spoke of the social connections we once had, and now struggle to hold onto.
Fauzia Mazhar of Waterloo has a huge extended family across southwestern Ontario and told me they used to gather once a week at each other’s homes, celebrating special occasions, and going on picnics and beach trips in the summer.
“It brought the four generations together,” she said.
“We sometimes talk about how 2019 was the best year since we came to Canada. We had so much fun together in 2019.”
Coral Andrews is a radio host at the local independent station 98.5 CKWR, and the thing she misses most is not having guests — mostly musicians but also other arts personalities and community leaders — come in person to her studio to chat and perform live on her show, The Afternoon Drive.
“All kinds of people were coming in all the time,” she said.
“There was a real cool energy happening, and it would keep you going. And now I just keep myself going.”
The memories fill us with nostalgia, but they also remind us of what we can look forward to.
Piscitelli remembers telling friends that she and Franklin were going to Edmonton and some weren’t impressed with the destination.
“I understand Edmonton isn’t Disneyland,” she said.
“But here’s the lesson. I am so grateful — all the time — that we did that. And that he remembers it.
“We squeezed it in just before the world fell apart, and it's the trip that has to get me through until the world is right side up again.”
What was your last ordinary pleasure before the pandemic struck? Tell me about it by email at ldamato@therecord.com before Monday March 8, and I’ll print a selection of the responses in a future column.