Face of Nation International : We love food in our family — but this night, we eat without noticing. It might as well be dry toast.
Mum, who is nearly 76, keeps trying not to cry. My older sister, Kate, says: “This is the last family gathering. We’re social distancing in earnest after this.” Kate’s there with her husband and three kids. My kids are there too. But the adults ignore them, instead reading coronavirus news stories aloud at the dinner table. Shut down of all non-essential services within 48 hours.
Our jaws are tight, and no-one is saying too much. This is bigger than any of us could imagined. The next day, I get Mum on the phone to check in. What was upsetting her so much the night before? “I was afraid of being alone. And not having enough to do, and no-one to talk to,” she says.
“As I get older, sometimes I feel, ‘Why am I here now?'” she continues. “In a situation like this, those sorts of feelings might become worse. If you didn’t make a big effort, you could get quite depressed.”
Mum’s parents were Jews who fled the Holocaust from Slovakia. Since Dad died seven years ago, she lives alone. But she’s always busy — at the theatre, book club, with her walking group, gardening, sewing, learning at University of the Third Age, travelling overseas or holding dinner parties. All she ever wants is to be with her family and friends.
Now, she’s worried about everything: being cut off from her aging family in England, how I’ll fare financially as a freelancer, how she’ll fare as a self-funded retiree. What life will be like without being able to hug her grandchildren. “What is going to happen in the long term for my children?” Mum asks me on the phone.
“I’m an older person. For me, it’s not so important, but for you, your generation? How is it all going to look in a year’s time?” (Source: ABC News – Australia)
