One year in
NEW PASTOR IN MOKENA FIRST MET HIS CONGREGATION VIRTUALLY
Personal stories show impact of coronavirus
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the past year of our lives. We have changed the way we work, shop, exercise and relax. Trips to the grocery store, sharing a restaurant meal and family celebrations have become complicated.
Though vaccines give hope that normalcy will return, the pandemic’s impact on our lives keeps evolving. As we learn more about it, the daily work of those in our communities keeps changing.
One year into the pandemic, these snapshots illustrate how we’ve adapted.
In ordinary times, the St. John United Church of Christ in Mokena would have put on a special service at Christmas. It would have been inside the nice warm church with a full orchestra.
But these weren’t ordinary times, thanks to the pandemic that a year ago this month shuttered businesses, and churches.
The Rev. Rocky Sheneman became pastor at St. John in May 2020. While leaving his 800-member church in St. Charles, Missouri without formal goodbyes was tough on him, a drive-by parade organized to welcome him to Mokena was heartwarming.
Moving from state to state provided challenges. So did recorded services, in which he had to get used to making contact eye contact with a camera rather than looking around and making eye contact with various members in the church sanctuary.
Thanks to some ingenuity by Sheneman, his staff and church members, they celebrated Christmas Eve in by hosting a Christmas pageant in the parking lot that chilly evening.
He said the pageant was held on a trailer, there were speakers, a narrator and social distancing. People either stayed in their cars or they stood in front of them.
“We were able to spend 15 or 20 minutes together and I closed it up with a prayer,” he said. “It was an unusual Christmas Eve, but it was very meaningful and some people in the neighborhood showed up.”
The times when things were shut down and Zoom services were the norm, Sheneman was happy to at least be able to get the word out to his people.
“It doesn’t feel as warm as when you can gather and shake hands and hug,” he said. “But it was meaningful and intentional even in that setting.”
FRANKFORT MOTHER FACED STRUGGLES, BUT ALSO ENJOYED FAMILY TIME
With apologies to the rock group Bowling for Soup, Frankfort’s Julie Terlep hasn’t been preoccupied with 1985 during the pandemic, but the sliver of a silver lining had her thinking of that simpler time.
There were many bad things that happened to the Sandburg High School librarian that made 2020 a year to forget, including the death of her father, Silas Ellingson in August. She said that the death was not caused by COVID-19, however, shutdowns caused by the pandemic caused hardship, especially for her children.
Liliana, 14, Jared 10, and Cameron 4, used to head to Lockport and spend one night a week at their grandparents’ house and that had to stop a year ago, when COVID-19 became a pandemic that forced separation.
“During the pandemic, my dad would say things like ‘I’m not going to be around forever. I would rather risk it.’’’ Terlep said.
But risks were not taken and the best they could do was bring the kids over for a short visit in the driveway.
The pandemic helped vanquish many of her children’s activities, including sports and Liliana’s chance to perform in the Hickory Creek Middle School production of “Singin’ in the Rain.”
But Terlep enjoyed a different type of summer that was completely unexpected.
Inside the house, they had time for family board games, such as Monopoly, and trivia games. Outside the house, it was an enjoyable blast from the past for Terlep to watch.
“It was more of an old-fashioned type of summer, the type we grew up with,” she said. “Most summers, the kids in the neighborhood are not here. They are in camp or doing things. But this summer, everybody was here. They would get together and ride bikes and play in the backyards on swing sets. It was surprising that it suddenly felt like it was 1985. It was fun.”
BEVERLY WOMAN RECOUNTS DRESS SHOPPING BEFORE COVID-19 DELAYED WEDDING
In early March last year, Gabrielle Toth was having one of the best shopping experiences of her life. She was set to be married May 30, and a lifelong friend took her to a few specialty boutiques in the city to find a dress.
Toth, a Beverly resident and an associate professor at Chicago State University, said she was content to spend $100 on a wedding dress. But Leanne Mull, who helped Toth get
her first job, insisted on taking her shopping for a nice dress.
Toth she said she never had a shopping experience quite like this. The boutiques they visited cater to women who wear plus sizes. The dresses were exponentially more expensive, but what she tried on fit perfectly. Toth said they also “looked incredible.” But she never got the chance to buy one. Just a week later, March 13, she and her fiance, Chris Hyatt, picked up their wedding invitations. They asked people to join them at Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church in Palos Hills. That day, the state’s first round of restrictions went into effect. By the end of March, the couple realized the May 30 wedding was not happening.
“As summer went on, I guess we thought maybe we would have it in the fall,” she said, but that quickly became implausible. “It seemed wise not to fret about it and put it off.”
Toth, who turns 52 this month, said the idea of a courthouse wedding or small service never seemed practical. Hyatt is 53. She said she has a 19-year-old son. And while the wedding is still about love, Toth said they also want it to be a celebration.
“We’re old,” she said. “What’s the point of having a wedding with only 15 people there? We want to have a party.”
Toth said they were able to put the disappointment of postponing into perspective. They know people have lost family members, are dealing with health struggles or may no longer have their jobs because of the pandemic.
“In the scheme of things, our wedding is merely postponed,” she said. “It will happen someday. It’s clearly nothing compared to what other people are going through.”
EAST AURORA STUDENT’S QUINCEANERA PUT ON HOLD BY PANDEMIC
East Aurora High School freshman Guadalupe Ornelas said her biggest dream since she was a little girl was to host her quinceanera.
When shutdown orders first began during the coronavirus pandemic last March, she didn’t worry much. She thought it’d be a short break from school and a chance to relax.
But as the weeks inched along, she realized that her quinceanera, a rite of passage for many Latina girls, was not going to happen on Nov. 15, 2020.
“It was frustrating because as a Hispanic young girl, you envision this your whole life,” Ornelas said. “You think about the big dress, the party, your court and everyone you care about together enjoying the party. You’re becoming a young woman and it’s a big step into adulthood.”
Luckily, Ornelas will still be 15 years old when her rescheduled quinceanera is held in September 2021.
It wasn’t just the quinceanera plans that were squashed during the pandemic, but also her graduation ceremony from Waldo Middle School, attending the eighth-grade dance and the end of the year field trip to Six Flags.
Now, as the pandemic lingers, she is at East Aurora High School but has yet to be able to experience classes in-person.
“High school is supposed to be about making new friends, redefining yourself and now in my classes, I don’t know anyone there,” Ornelas said. “They put us in breakout rooms (on Zoom) and we don’t talk. It’s just people typing at each other. Now it’s just classes through a screen and awkward.”
She’s found her mental health impacted after being stuck at home and spending more time than ever on her cellphone. While she used to be an A or B student, she’s finding herself procrastinating more and struggling to focus online. But as the school year inches closer to a close, she is trying to get on track and will spend the summer planning for next year.
While she struggled to get motivated to begin planning her quinceanera again because she didn’t want to get her hopes up if it had to be postponed again, she was able to go shopping and pick out an ornate red dress with her friends and her mom last week.
She’s keeping tabs on who has received the vaccination to fight COVID-19, because she said it feels like with each shot, she is one step closer to her quinceanera.
Stories by Jeff Vorva, Bill Jones and Megan Jones
Editor’s note: As we reach the one-year mark of the Illinois stay-at-home order, reporters talked to people from around the Chicago suburbs about how the coronavirus pandemic affected their families, their work, their health and other aspects of their lives. This article is part of that collaboration between the Daily Southtown, the Beacon-News, the Lake County News-Sun, the Naperville Sun and the Courier-News.