SATURDAY, DECEMBER 25 , 2021 THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A
The snowman-o-meter
A
projector greeted the second-grade class
with a question: “On a scale of snowman,
how are you feeling today?” The children
were supposed to choose one of nine pictures of
snowmen with different facial expressions.
From a stool at the back of the room, Thomas
Gallo’s hand shot up. He squirmed to the edge of his
seat, staring at his teacher through his thick-
rimmed blue glasses.
The 7-year-old wouldn’t have known how to
answer that question last year. In fact, he might not
have even been around to hear his teacher ask it.
Thomas liked to go off-camera during key moments
of first grade, which he experienced almost
completely online.
His teacher, Ali Stone, missed Thomas during
guided reading sessions and lessons on
capitalization and punctuation. “Tommy, Tommy,”
she would say into the mic. “Are you there?” Silence.
Thomas knows he wasn’t a very good student last
year. It was hard for him to focus during online
learning, with all the noises around his house, like
the “tick-tick” of the printer dispensing
assignments for him and his sister. To stay seated,
he tried keeping his pet gecko in a basket next to his
computer, but he ended up tossing the animal onto
his shoulder and going down to the kitchen, maybe
to get a Go-Gurt from the fridge.
Thomas doesn’t like to admit it, but online
learning was especially hard for him because he
often couldn’t understand what Ms. Stone was
saying. A native Spanish speaker, the boy was
learning to comprehend English at the same time
he was supposed to be reading and writing in it.
Sometimes, it was easier to just forget about school
than try to master a new language through a
computer screen.
“I couldn’t understand all the time. I just didn’t
want to say it out loud,” he said. “I was kind of
embarrassed.”
Thomas realized when he returned to his
Virginia elementary school that he had forgotten
about all the fun parts of learning, like dancing
around the classroom with his friends. It was also
much easier to understand Ms. Stone when she was
only a few feet away.
Months later, Thomas reliably jumps at the
chance to answer complex questions, such as
identifying similarities among characters in
multiple books. He is quick to find a partner during
playtime, and he now considers writing workshop
one of his favorite parts of the day.
So, on an ordinary school day in December,
Thomas’s answer to the snowman question was
clear.
“I feel number four,” he said, pointing at the
snowman with arms thrust in the air and a wide
grin on its face. “Because, well, I just feel excited.”— Emily DaviesNaughty, nice, maskless
S
anta was sweating by the time he made it to
his throne.
So much had conspired to keep him away
from this seat. Skin cancer, cataracts, heart attacks.
A raging global pandemic, the hopelessly divided
state of Florida, and a governor — “death-Santis,”
Santa called him — who seemed almost scornful of
the masks that experts said could save the lives of
people like him, the old, overweight and sick.
But Santa had made it.
When his old employer said they were cutting
back on Santas because of the pandemic, he found a
new gig across the country, leaving Punta Gorda,
Fla., for the first time in two years and arriving at a
resort in the D.C. suburbs.
Now, with a groan for his bad back, he sank into a
red chair facing a camera and two bright studio
lights. His white beard had been fluffed, his velvet
suit brushed, and his boots polished so they
gleamed.
This year, unlike last, he wasn’t trapped behind a
plastic screen like a store display. He could hug and
snuggle and place his ear close enough to hear the
quiet whispers that started, “I want ...”
A squeal. His first visitors were here — two
sisters, 2 and 5, in matching plaid dresses and
ribbon-topped high ponytails. He raised a gloved
hand and waved. The older one waved back; the
younger one bawled. Santa chuckled. And so it
goes, he thought.
Santa knew the virus was still floating around,
but he hoped to be protected by his vaccinations,
the red cloth mask across his face and the sign atthe front of the room that said indoor face
coverings were still required.
He had asked management for the sign a few
days ago, because if there’s one cardinal rule they
teach in Santa school, it’s to never, ever break
character. Not when a child kicks or rolls their eyes.
Not when they ask for the impossible, like bringing
Daddy home from Iraq or making Mommy and
Daddy stop fighting. And not, pandemic be
damned, when they come hurtling at you without a
mask — as one little girl was at that exact moment.
Santa breathed in and felt his heart, with its two
stents, skip a beat.
Paul Gagnon, 70, had loved acting for as long as
he could remember. It brought people together,
away from their pain, which for him was the
lifelong memory of being abandoned by his parents
and sent to live with his grandparents. A well-
crafted illusion was a powerful balm, Gagnon
believed, one that people — children, especially —
needed more than ever this year.
So he picked the girl up onto his lap, letting her
lean on his chest and tug at his beard. Another
unmasked girl crawled up next to him, followed by
Mom, Dad and baby brother — all with bare faces.
“Cheese!” the photographer called out. The parents
grinned. The baby sneezed.
Santa would later complain to his wife about this
family, but for now he had a role to perform. His
eyes crinkled into crescent moons as he held the
children snug. Then, from behind a mask, he
bellowed his line: “Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!”
— Rebecca Tan
illuSTRATionS By BeyA ReBAi foR The WAShingTon PoSTWinfrey, as the pair accused the
family of displaying a significant
lack of support.
Following the interview, the
queen issued a statement saying
that she was “saddened” by the
pair’s comments and that “the is-
sues raised, particularly that of
race, are concerning.” William was
also forced to deny claims that the
family is racist.Prince Andrew continues to
face scrutiny
Britain’s Prince Andrew, second
son of Elizabeth, has long faced
questions over his friendship with
disgraced financier and convicted
sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who
was found dead in a jail cell in
2019.
The prince also stands accused
of sexually assaulting an Ameri-
can woman, Virginia Giuffre, who
says she was forced to have sex
with Andrew at the behest of Ep-
stein on at least three occasions.
The prince has denied the allega-
tions.
In October, British law enforce-
ment officials confirmed they
were dropping their investigation
into the claims.
However, the prince faces a law-suit in the United States filed by
Giuffre, who is seeking unspeci-
fied damages. Lawyers for the
prince attempted to have the case
thrown out in November by filing
an application to a U.S. judge that
called the lawsuit “baseless.”
Inquiries into the Epstein scan-
dal are likely to proceed in 2022,
with a U.S. judge ruling that An-
drew must be questioned under
oath by July 14.A hospital stay and a string of
canceled events
Many across Britain have never
known a life without Elizabeth,
who took to the throne in 1952 —
which means a lot of people are
glued to any report regarding her
health.
In October, the monarch was
spotted using a walking stick for
support — a rare sight that served
as a vivid reminder the queen is 95.
In the same month, the palace
announced that Elizabeth had
been admitted to a hospital for
“preliminary tests,” which
sparked widespread concern.
After a night, the queen was
discharged but advised to take
things easy — performing only
“light duties” from Windsor cas-tle. The health scare forced her to
cancel trips, although the mon-
arch continued to meet with some
officials via video link.
The monarch also pulled out of
attending a Remembrance Day
service, which the palace blamed
on a sprained back.
She is still expected to give her
traditional Christmas Day speech.
Last year, she focused on acts of
empathy and kindness that have
brought people together during
the coronavirus pandemic.
This year’s prerecorded Christ-mas message will be the first since
Philip’s death and is expected to be
particularly personal.
While the royals experienced
great loss and various challenges
this year, the family also expanded
with the birth of four babies: Au-
gust Brooksbank, Lucas Tindall,
Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor and
Sienna Mapelli Mozzi.
The queen ends 2021 with 12
great-grandchildren, four of
whom will be celebrating their
first Christmas.
[email protected]JonAThAn BRADy/Pool/ASSociATeD PReSS
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II sits alone during the April funeral of Prince Philip, to whom she was married for more than seven decades.BY JENNIFER HASSAN
london — For Queen Elizabeth
II, 2021 was a challenging year
that brought sorrow, scandal and
personal health issues, all of
which played out under the ever
watchful eye of the British tabloid
press — for which the lives of royal
family members remain a topic of
fascination and frequent scrutiny.
Prince Philip, to whom she was
married for more than seven dec-
ades, died in April — and a photo
of the queen sitting alone at his
funeral because of coronavirus re-
strictions summarized for many
the cruelty of the pandemic. It was
also a year that saw new contro-
versies — with Prince Harry and
Meghan’s explosive Oprah Win-
frey interview sparking debate
about racism in the royal family —
as well as concerns over the 95-
year-old monarch’s health.
Here is a look back at one of the
most challenging years for Brit-
ain’s royals.
Death of Prince Philip
Prince Philip, the Duke of Edin-
burgh, died in April at age 99. The
palace said Philip, who was the
longest-serving royal consort in
British history, “passed away
peacefully at Windsor Castle,”
about an hour outside of London,
where he and the queen isolated
amid the global health crisis.
The prince was hospitalized
shortly before his death for heart
surgery and battled an infection
that was unrelated to the corona-
virus, the palace said.
The country bid the prince
goodbye with a funeral that paid
tribute to his long life — but also
adhered to Britain’s stringent cor-
onavirus restrictions. The special-
ly adapted ceremony meant no
crowds, no singing and a guest list
limited to 30 people.
Mourners, including the queen,
wore black face coverings — and
one particular scene shattered
hearts around the world.
With her head bowed and her
face covered, the queen, who was
dressed all in black, was forced to
sit alone inside Windsor’s
St George’s Chapel. The scene
prompted many to share their
own stories of how social distanc-
ing and coronavirus rules had giv-
en them no option but to grieve in
isolation.
More than six months after it
was taken, the image was recalled
once again when a series of scan-
dals hit Downing Street, alleging
that Prime Minister Boris Johnson
and his staff had broken coronavi-
rus rules on multiple occasions.
“Every time I read about how
Boris and his mates partied away,
I’m reminded of this photo of the
queen, alone at the funeral of the
man she loved for decades. It’s
heartbreaking,” read one of many
recent tweets contrasting the
queen’s actions with the alleged
rule-breaking of the government.Meghan and Harry’s stunning
Oprah interview
It’s been an eventful year for
Prince Harry and wife Meghan,
who lost their royal patronages
and honorary military titles in
February, welcomed a second
child this summer and continued
to face allegations that they were
deepening a divide within the roy-
al family.
In March, the two sat down with
Oprah Winfrey for a sensational
interview in which the pair al-
leged racial hostility within the
royal family.
Meghan, who is biracial, said
there had been “concerns and con-
versations” during her pregnancy
about “how dark” their son’s skin
might be. The query was raised by
an unnamed royal who the pair
later clarified was not the queen or
Philip.
Prince Harry claimed his father
and heir to the throne, Prince
Charles, had stopped taking his
calls after the pair announced they
would be stepping back from their
duties and hinted that his rela-
tionship with his brother, Prince
William, had become strained,
adding they were on “different
paths.”
Meghan also revealed that she
had experienced “constant” sui-
cidal feelings soon after she mar-
ried into the family. “I just didn’t
want to be alive anymore,” she toldA year of heartache
and controversy for
Queen Elizabeth II
Monarch lost husband,
was ‘saddened’ by Harry
and Meghan revelationsMATT DunhAM/ASSociATeD PReSS
LEFT: Prince Andrew faces a lawsuit from an American woman
who accused him of sexual assault. RIGHT: Prince Philip, who died
at age 99, was the longest-serving British royal consort.KoJi SASAhARA/ASSociATeD PReSS