Don’t worry, this post doesn’t require you to know any backstory. It’s like watching the 3rd Thor movie – you’ll probably put it together just fine. But:
Tl;dr – My mom said starting to puzzle is like the seventh layer of quarantine hell. If you’re at that point, you’ve reached rock bottom.
Well, last weekend on Sunday night, I got a call from my parents.
My parents never call. I think I’ve received an incoming call from them twice in the last five years. One of them was about a death.
A while ago, my grandmother was in the hospital and I was on vacation. I got a call from my mom and… pretty much assumed the worst. I picked up:
“Hi, Mom… Is this about Grandma?”
“No, she’s fine! Doing well!”
“Oh, great – what’s up?”
“Well, someone in the family was caught up in this police/suicide situation – I wanted you to know in case it’s on the news or something.”
Those are the situations I get called about.
Having parents in their 70s during COVID-19, then… I was getting extremely nervous when I saw the missed call. Luckily, it was a FaceTime, so I assumed it may have just been something regarding Easter or taxes? Something minor. We’re all trapped inside, so maybe this was just a “hello” call.
I finally get on the phone with them and my parents are RADIANT.
“Hi, Tedd! How are you! What’s going on?!”
“Oh, hi!” I said.
We go on to speak for a while. It was definitely just a social call – which, as I’ve said… is weird.
They had just moved, so my stepdad walked me around via FaceTime in their new house and showed me the new digs.
Then…
We get to their dining room and there IS A PUZZLE STARTED.
“Oh, yeah, we started a puzzle,” my mom says nonchalantly.
“Wait,” I said. “Mom, last week you said puzzles were THE last resort. What’s going on?”
My parents are silent for a moment and then my stepdad goes, “Oh, our Internet’s down.”
It was literally like the end of The Sixth Sense – EVERYTHING MADE SENSE. A social call from my parents on a Sunday evening? Their radiant smiles when I called back? A puzzle conspicuously in the middle of their dining room? It wasn’t a desire for warmth and connection due to social isolation – it was boredom.
“Yeah,” my stepdad continued, “we have called the family, started the puzzle, we’re finding things to do!”
Then, wait for it….
I go “Wow! That has to be hard. How long has it been down?”
“Oh, let’s see,” my mom looked at the clock. “I think about two hours.”
I literally couldn’t stop laughing. My parents went into Quarantine DEFCON-11 because they didn’t have internet for 2 hours. Puzzles, calling the WHOLE family (I have five brothers… that’s no easy task), virtual house tours – what would they have done if it went into hour 3? Started demolition and home remodeling?
I told this story to my friends the other night on a Zoom call, and it segued into everyone sharing their quarantine connections with their families. Some of them have game nights every weekend with their parents and siblings.
As I thought about it, I definitely would love to hear from my family more often, so that if someone calls, I don’t assume there was a police scandal or a death, buutttttttt… maybe our WASPy Familial Distancing is for the best: once a week is a lot.
And now at least I can add “Internet down” to the list of possible reasons I’m getting a FaceTime. In the end, I’d say COVID-19 (and bad, Floridian internet) actually really brought our family together.