“What year is it this week?” asks one meme. “It’s
the 87th of March,” goes another. Or: “Today is
Blursday the fortyteenth of Maprilay.”
As Park conducts therapy sessions to help
families eke out a quasi-normal existence, she
finds them unmoored “because it’s not just day-
to-day life that has been upended,” she says.
“The nature of what we’re dealing with is so
new and unknown. Is it two weeks like this, two
months, until the summer, or after? If we knew,
we could start to internally organize our lives.
But the sands are shifting constantly.”
Lopez and Rogers refuse to accept they won’t
be getting married on August 1. A few days
ago, they agreed their wedding would proceed,
whether as the extravaganza they’d planned or,
if necessary, a marriage via Zoom, Lopez says,
“with our immediate families and our officiant in
our living room.”
“As silly as it sounds, this gave me hope,” she says
of the decision. The couple recently wrote a blog
post promising friends their invitations soon —
and untouched.
Kasey Woods cannot give her son his senior
prom via Zoom, much as she’d like to. Woods, a
New York mother of three who works in public
relations, alternates her anxiety about the
pandemic with feelings of pride for her oldest
son, who’s been accepted for the fall to his
mother’s own alma mater, Howard University.
She was hoping that attending admitted
students day would seal the deal for him,
since he’s choosing between several schools.
That, of course, was canceled, along with
prom and a surprise 18th birthday party
she’d been planning.