CHARLOTTE – March 17, 2020: one year ago today, Governor Cooper banned sit-down service at bars and restaurants. It was one in a series of steps that would abruptly and completely change life as we knew it. Three days earlier, Cooper called for all K-12 schools in the state to suspend in-person instruction for at least two weeks and banned gatherings of more than 100 people. Just one week later, on March 24, Mecklenburg County would impose a stay-at-home order requiring the closure of all but essential businesses and prohibiting gatherings of over ten people.
A full year later, the United States has seen 29.2 million cases of COVID-19 and over half a million deaths related to the virus. North Carolina alone has had 881 K cases and 11,577 deaths as of March 10, 2021. Here, we look back at a year with COVID-19 and share the stories of nine individuals living in our “new normal.”
“This is a disease unlike any other.”
– Marr Chaney
In April of 2020, Marr Chaney’s friend was diagnosed with bronchitis. She was told she wasn’t contagious after 24 hours on antibiotics, but two weeks later, Marr found themself coughing as well.
“I was coughing very badly for over a month,” remembers Marr, who only narrowly avoided a trip to the hospital. “Any time I took a breath, it felt like I was trying to breathe in fiberglass. My partner ended up having to sleep on the couch because I would wake us both up at night with my coughing.”
Marr and her friend were sick before COVID was spreading widely in NC, before we even knew much about it. “We both had rapid tests done, but at that time they were barely reliable,” says Marr. “She got the antibody test, and that came back positive. I got a chest x-ray a few months afterward that confirmed it was COVID.”
Almost a full year later, COVID still deeply impacts Marr’s life. “I used to be super active, going hiking, kayaking, and camping,” they said. “Early last month, I was taking a short hike, but I couldn’t breathe right at all. Any time I hit even a slight incline, I would start huffing and puffing and was completely unable to catch my breath. It got to the point where I was seeing stars and had to sit down. When I got home, I went to my doctor to get my oxygen levels looked at, and they were hanging around 94% while I was just sitting. On the treadmill, the level tanked to 90%, and I felt like I was going to pass out again.”
It’s also affected their state of mind. “I’m so scared that I’ll catch it again,” says Marr, who lives in Uptown Charlotte. “ My aunt caught COVID twice, and she passed away the second time around. That really spiked my anxiety. I can barely leave to go to the grocery store. So many people still refuse to wear masks.”
“I just want to scream at them,” Marr says of people who don’t mask up. “I want them to understand just how terrible this virus is. It’s almost been a whole year since I caught COVID, and I’m still suffering. This is a disease unlike any other. I don’t understand the selfishness that comes with people who refuse to wear a mask. Sure, it’s uncomfortable, but so is never being able to breathe right again.”
“Doctors and nurses know the person in front of them is sick. Grocery store workers didn’t sign up for this.”
– Rachel Chisum, Harris Teeter Worker
In the early days of COVID, people fearful that they might be facing a long period of isolation at home rushed to stock up on supplies, placing further strain on a supply chain that was already stretched thin. “I’d see people walk out with two and three carts full of stuff,” says Harris Teeter worker Rachel Chisum. “It got to the point where suppliers couldn’t keep up, so we’d be out of toilet paper and paper towels for weeks at a time. People would get really angry when we were out of things, and they’d get really nasty with me or other employees.”
While you might think working at a grocery store gives employees an advantage when it comes to securing low-stock items, Rachel found the reverse was often true. “So often, by the time we got off work, the store was out of the things we needed,” she remembers. “Some of my coworkers would come in to work early to pick up necessities and put them in their cars.”
Compounding the stress she felt at work was the isolation Rachel felt at home. Like many young adults, Rachel and her boyfriend were both living with their parents when the world shut down. Uncomfortable with contact from anyone outside their home, Rachel’s boyfriend’s parents would not allow her to come over, and the pair went without seeing each other for two months.
If there’s a silver lining to Rachel’s story, it’s this: in September, she and her boyfriend moved to Kannapolis together. “We were already planning on moving in together, and we’d been looking a little bit for places when COVID hit,” she says. “Spending that time apart is what kind of lit a fire under us to actually find a place quicker than we were before.”
Moving during a pandemic brought its own set of challenges, but Rachel and her boyfriend are happier now. “It’s nice to be able to come home to the person you love, especially after a stressful day of work,” she says.
When I asked Rachel if she feels grocery store workers should be getting the same recognition doctors and nurses on the front lines do, she’s conflicted. “I keep going back and forth on that,” she says. “Like for the Super Bowl. They invited healthcare workers because they’re on the ‘front lines,’ but what about grocery store employees or cashiers at places like Target and Walmart.”
“I do think grocery store employees are just as important,” she continues, “because if it weren’t for us then the stores wouldn’t be open, and people wouldn’t be able to get food and water and the other things they need in their day to day lives. Plus, there’s always the chance we could come in contact with someone who is sick, too. The difference is doctors and nurses know that the person in front of them is sick. Healthcare workers know they could eventually be putting their health at risk when they go into that field. Grocery store workers don’t sign up for that, and we don’t have the same protection they do.”
“If I can make a difference in one person’s life, it will make it all worth it.”
– Hannah Shelton, Nursing Student
Suffering from a rare and severe migraine condition, 22-year-old Hannah Shelton wasn’t expected to survive her teenage years. Now, at the age of 22, the various medications and treatments Hannah endures to treat that condition make her immunocompromised.
Nevertheless, Hannah chose to pursue a career in nursing, working as a Certified Nursing Assistant at Novant Health Matthews and studying to be a Registered Nurse. When she reflects on being a healthcare worker, an immunocompromised person and a full-time nursing student during a pandemic – well, it’s hard to know where to start.
“I wouldn’t say it was ever easy but the last 6-8 months has been the hardest,” says Hannah. “During the beginning of the pandemic, I couldn’t go to my doctor’s office for routine treatment, which caused increased symptoms and put me off my medical regimen. My health affects everything else I do, but it wasn’t anything I could change or fix. Life continued rolling, and I had to just deal with it the best I could.”
Until about 6-8 months ago, Hannah didn’t see much COVID in the hospital or on her unit because COVID positive patients were sent to bigger hospitals. However, just before Thanksgiving, Hannah and her colleagues got word that her entire unit would now be treating COVID.
“Every single closed door on my unit would have a COVID patient behind it,” says Hannah. “It was rough on us – the staff, the patients, and the family. Every one of us held many hands through all our PPE and gloves as the patients struggled to breathe. We had many people recover enough that they got to go home, but we also had those who never got that opportunity. It was even harder to mentally wrap your mind around the idea that the people they loved the most couldn’t be there.”
When she wasn’t caring for COVID patients at the hospital, Hannah was still in school full time as a nursing student. “This pandemic has been hard for me as a student as well because our class is all virtual, and when we do have lab or clinical, we are all masked, washing our hands, distancing, or whatever possible to prevent an outbreak,” says Hannah.
Holding the hands of dying patients during the day. Struggling through a modified nursing program at night. Worrying for her own health. It would be enough to get anyone down, but Hannah chooses to see the positive. “During the beginning of COVID we had so much support from the surrounding community,” she says. “There wasn’t a day we didn’t have food or other gestures of thanks. Local police, fire, and other town officials from Matthews, Mint Hill and Charlotte even did a drive by parade at Novant Matthews to show thanks and support. This entire pandemic has taught me that there are still people in the world that care and respect others as well as their actions. It has taught me that we need to listen more. We need to listen to other people’s concerns, praises, and stories because we never know what someone has been through. It has taught me that every day isn’t given to us, it is earned.”
And while the last year has been tough, it hasn’t altered Hannah’s ambitions one bit. “While nursing school is a lot, and some days it makes me question if I am making the right decision, there is no way I’d stop,” she says. “I feel whole-heartedly that this is my calling, and if I can make a difference in one person’s life, it will make it all worth it.”
“COVID has taken a lot of important milestones away from me.”
– Olivia Oyler, UNC-Charlotte Senior
“If I had one word for being a senior in college during a pandemic it would be: disappointing,” says UNC-Charlotte Senior Olivia Oyler. “Not being able to actually have a graduation ceremony is a huge let down, especially after working so hard the last four years. COVID has taken a lot of important milestones away from me. It feels like I got robbed of a year and a half of memories. Especially since college is ‘supposed’ to be one of the best times of your life.”
She also worries about job security, something she didn’t think would be a problem once she had her bachelor’s degree. A psychology major with a minor in child and family development, Olivia had originally planned to continue on to grad school, but now she’s not so sure.
“I hate to say it because I know all the professors are trying really hard, but I don’t necessarily feel like I’m getting a quality education right now,” admits Olivia, who has been remote since last March and questions whether colleges should be charging full tuition for what amounts to self-teaching. “A lot of us college students also feel left in the dark because colleges don’t update us frequently enough. Most of the professors just upload lecture videos, and then you’re on your own unless you reach out for help.”
The last year and a half has soured Olivia on the idea of paying for what might turn out to be remote grad school. “I don’t think graduate school would be worth attending during COVID,” she says. “I don’t want to continue paying tuition and not actively learn! I want to do counseling psychology, and I feel like learning to have appropriate interactions with clients would need to be practiced in person.”
While she’s worried that she’s not mastering the ins and outs of counseling the way she had hoped, Olivia does feel living through COVID has taught her valuable life skills. “The silver lining is I’ll be more flexible in the workplace and prepared for change,” she says. “I’ve also maintained a high GPA, which shows perseverance during a high stress time.”
“My boyfriend and I both lost our jobs and had zero income.”
– Jordan Wilkie, Bartender
“When everything first started I was devastated,” says Jordan Wilkie, who bartends on a small island off the coast of Wilmington. “My boyfriend and I both lost our jobs and had zero income. I had to get a job delivering pizzas so we could pay bills.”
Jordan was out of work for three weeks before she realized things weren’t returning to normal any time soon and sought out other employment. “I couldn’t take it anymore!” says Wilkie. “We were living on our boat at the time, so quarantine was a blast, but it became hard to relax with the stress of not knowing when we’d be employed again.”
A lot changed for the better for Jordan when restaurants were allowed to open at 50% capacity. “Once phase two began, we were golden,” she says. “We had lines wrapped around the building and down the block, and the restaurant my boyfriend manages surpassed all of their budget predictions.”
For Jordan, a surplus of people working from “home” at the beach has meant a return to steady employment, but it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. “We did struggle with people being disrespectful and unsafe sometimes,” she says. “People refused to wear masks, left dirty napkins all over tables, or weren’t understanding about things taking longer than usual. Sometimes we had people come unreasonably close to us and then tell us they were from NYC.”
Despite several close calls, Jordan has been lucky so far. “I’ve had very direct exposure around seven times that I know of and have tested negative every time,” says Jordan, who also suffers from an autoimmune disease. “I’m less worried about myself and more worried about those with more compromised immune systems.”
And she won’t forget the kindness friends and even strangers showed her when everything was shut down. “When I wasn’t making money in the beginning, a lot of folks working from home helped us out,” says Jordan. “Someone made an Instagram post asking for people’s Venmo usernames, and my sister put mine on there. I want to do similar stuff now that I’m no longer in that position! I’ve bought some gift cards from restaurants that were struggling, and I started going onto those threads that first helped me. I’ve also had friends in cities that struggled more that I’ve just sent food or money to when I could.”
With the vaccine offering hope for herd immunity some time this year, Jordan is optimistic about the future. “We’re seeing more business than we ever have in February before!” she says.
“When COVID hit, everything changed in a second.”
– Paige Rabinowitz, Hair & Makeup Artist
Aspiring makeup artist Paige Rabinowitz moved to New York City in August of 2018, a few months after graduating from UNC-Greensboro with a degree in film production. “When I moved to New York, I moved with hopes of doing makeup for film and TV,” says Paige. “I started off working as a production assistant (PA) for a studio in Tribeca along with PA-ing for short films and commercials when I could.”
After a few months, Paige started getting jobs as a makeup artist assistant and eventually as a makeup artist. She worked on several indie feature films, short films, commercials, photoshoots and a television show called “Wonderama.” “Then of course, everyone in NYC has a survival job,” says Paige, who worked as a receptionist at a hair salon and nannied part time.
Entertainment isn’t an easy industry to break into in the best of times, and for Paige, the pandemic made it impossible. “Before the pandemic hit, things were going really well for me,” she recalls. “I had just moved to Soho in Manhattan, I was starting to get booked for more and more makeup jobs and had a part time job, so I had a somewhat stable income, and for the most part was really happy. But when COVID hit, everything changed in a second.”
The hair salon Paige worked at to make ends meet shut down on March 14th, and all film and TV production abruptly ceased. Moreover, the family Paige nannied for decided to relocate to California, which also put her housing situation in jeopardy as the apartment she was living in was owned by them. “When they moved, they said I could stay to wait out the pandemic, but when things got really bad, I realized I didn’t want to live in total isolation for months, so I decided to come back to Charlotte to wait things out,” says Paige. “I expected to be in Charlotte for a month at most. I ended up staying from March to August.”
Paige moved back to New York in August of 2020. Production jobs were still scarce, but she booked as many as she could and worked as a receptionist at a hair salon to make ends meet. “I did this for almost 5 months while sleeping on my friend’s couch,” she says. “One day I realized I was miserable, very depressed and just felt lost. I had lost my momentum in terms of booking makeup jobs because there weren’t a lot, and the few there were weren’t paying a lot, and not all of them followed COVID safety protocols. The part time job I was working, though I enjoyed it, didn’t pay enough to get me off my friend’s couch.”
Paige made the difficult decision to return home to Charlotte. “I love New York, and I made a lot of friends there and worked so hard to get where I am in my career,” she says. “Ultimately, though, moving home was the most compassionate decision I could have made for myself.”
Currently Paige is back in school at Paul Mitchell getting her cosmetology license, and despite many setbacks, she’s optimistic about the future. “It’s really exciting because it’s something I’ve been thinking about doing since high school,” she says. “I think it’s going to be great for my career, too, because now I will be able to do both hair and makeup. It opens up more opportunities for me in the beauty and entertainment industry.”
“At the end of the day, my plans for the future haven’t changed that much,” says Paige. “I hope to get back to doing makeup (and now hair!) for film and TV, and I’ve realized that door is still open for me, along with some new doors that have opened as well. I have a feeling I will end up back in New York one day, and if not there, then Atlanta or Los Angeles. We will see. I’m just trying my best to live in the moment right now and soak up as much knowledge as I can from school. I’m excited to see what my future holds.”
Yet despite her optimism, Paige will always remember this time as a sort of cautionary tale for all artists and freelancers like herself. “Something I heard a lot before COVID is that both the entertainment and beauty industry are ‘recession proof,’” she says. “What we’ve all learned is that this is not the same thing as ‘pandemic proof.’ Almost everyone I know in these industries was unemployed for months, and many of us struggled to get unemployment at first because we are freelancers. It’s been a really hard year for all of us, and many people in both these industries are still struggling. I hope it has helped shed light on the fact that freelancers, especially non-union freelancers, need more protections so they can get things like unemployment and other assistance if something like this were to happen again.”
“I also hope that this has given the general public more of an appreciation for the arts,” continues Paige. “I saw how upset people got when they couldn’t get their hair or makeup done for months, the new season of their favorite TV show got delayed, Broadway went dark, and the summer concerts they were looking forward to got canceled. I hope people start to see the arts and creative jobs for what they are: an integral part of communities, something to bring joy in a dark time, healing for the soul and for mental health.”
“I am one of the lucky ones.”
– Alex Brunt
“I am one of the lucky ones that maintained employment throughout quarantine,” says Alex Brunt. “My company is huge in food and product plastic packaging, so I stayed busy fulfilling orders for my customers to keep grocery stores stocked and my customers’ production lines up and running to keep groceries open.”
Alex has been working from home since last March. While the isolation of working from home has been difficult for many people, Alex describes it as a welcome change of pace. “It’s been a blessing in disguise,” she says. “I think my favorite thing about working from home is being in my own space and having more time. I live out in Matthews, so pre-COVID I was commuting past Uptown every morning and night, spending 1-2 hours a day in the car just commuting. Not to mention I’m saving more on gas – I used to fill up at least once a week, now maybe once or twice a month.”
Alex also feels working from home has helped her attain a better work/life balance and helped her to put her own health at the forefront by giving her time to work out early in the morning or even during her lunch break. “I do miss my coworkers and seeing them in person,” she says, “but we usually have weekly video chats to stay in touch, and we have a group message so we can reach out to one another if we are struggling during the day, so that helps fill my ‘social void’ during the work day.”
Alex considers herself lucky to have many supports others new to working from home may lack. “Pre-COVID, I got to work from home once a week already, so I was already pretty well equipped to work from home from the start with extra monitors, a portable phone, etc,” she notes. “My company also has a health coach, so she and I have bimonthly check-ins so she can see how I’m handling work from home life.”
“Even now we’re only making tentative plans for summer 2022.”
– Kayla Duehring
“We found out we were pregnant in February, and then everything shut down a month later,” says then-mom of one Kayla Duehring. “My husband started working from home, so our routine at home had to change with a then-almost two year old. We couldn’t go out to parks, play dates, or do anything other than try to entertain the kiddo at home.”
COVID has become so ingrained in our everyday lives that it’s hard to imagine a time when we didn’t know about it, but in February of 2020, Kayla – like so many of us – had no idea everything was about to change. For Kayla, those changes meant a pregnancy that would look very different than what she imagined, including putting off many things she wanted to enjoy with her son PJ while he was still an only child.
“When we got the two-week lockdown, I thought, well, maybe we can do something next month, but that just kept getting pushed off,” says Kayla. “Even now we’re only making tentative plans for summer 2022.”
Delivering a baby is stressful enough in normal times, but COVID added more obstacles to the process. “I got tested for COVID a few days before,” says Kayla, who had a planned c-section for medical reasons. “We had to be masked up until we were in the room, and my husband was supposed to be masked up any time anyone was in the room. No visitors were allowed at all. My mom and sister drove down from MA to watch PJ, and they had to isolate and get tested before coming down.” Despite some of the added hurdles, Kayla’s experience was a positive one, and she now looks back fondly on the time she had to relax and bond with her new baby Hunter without a lot of visitors around.
“The first few weeks weren’t bad, because most people just stay home anyways with a new baby,” remembers Kayla. Now six months old, Hunter’s first year of life has differed markedly from his older brother’s. “He’s still never been indoors publicly,” says Kayla. “He’s almost 6 months now and hasn’t met most of his extended family. We have been very isolated. We decided once we get vaccinated, we would start to feel better about going out and visiting people. PJ had his second birthday via Zoom, and we can’t plan for Hunter’s first birthday, because we don’t know what the world will be like in 6 months.”
Kayla is hopeful about the three vaccines on the market now as well as President Biden’s announcement that there will be enough to vaccinate every adult in America by the summer. But after such a long and unexpected year, she’s wary. “I just hope things get back to some sense of normalcy soon,” she says. “I’m hopeful about the May announcement, but not expecting it to actually happen. I’m in the last group, and appointments now are already hard to come by.”
“I’m starting to daydream about having a more predictably scheduled life.”
– Elizabeth Mills, Performing Arts Teacher
For Queen’s Grant High School performing arts teacher and foster parent Elizabeth Mills, the past year has felt like a never-ending cycle of Zoom and schoolwork, shifting and frequently multitasking between responsibilities to the students she teaches and her own family at home.
“Today is a great example,” said Elizabeth on Wednesday, March 10. “I started the day by taking three kids to the doctor for their annual physicals. It was pretty cool that I could do it without taking a sick day (because my school is remote on Wednesdays) but also, it cut significantly into the time I could use to work on grading, e-mails, and lesson planning.”
After a trip to the doctor, Elizabeth dropped the youngest off at daycare, a task that usually falls to her husband (who is currently working from home), but she takes over on Wednesdays when she’s remote as well. “I got home with the two other kids around 10:00 and worked with them on making up old assignments or redoing assignments with low grades,” she says, “and started working with them on completing their virtual assignments for the day.”
After lunch, Mills turned her attention to her drama and dance students, sitting in her bed for an hour and a half of required online office hours. “I would have been overjoyed to work with any student who attended on making up assignments or answering questions,” says Mills, “but not a single student showed up, so I worked on other things instead. This is really the essence of teaching right now–sporadic face to face time with some kids, and literally none with others, and overwhelming apathy from all parties involved.”
After her office hours, Mills switched back to parent duty, working with her own kids on virtual assignments until it was time for back-to-back meetings with social workers, both in person and via Zoom. “We’re foster parents, so we have monthly meetings with several different parties in addition to weekly therapy sessions and trainings,” says Mills. “Meanwhile, my 13-year-old had a virtual therapy session upstairs.”
After an evening of juggling assistance with her children’s virtual assignments and her own schoolwork while her husband made dinner followed by baths and bed for the kids, Mills and her husband usually sit down for what she calls “our only piece of normalcy during this entire past year:” an episode of Star Trek with dessert or a drink. Sometimes these days, though, they’re too tired and overwhelmed for that. On Wednesday, Elizabeth’s husband went to bed early and she stayed up late working on other things.
Looking back on the past year as a whole, Elizabeth sees the positive. “Overall, I have been extremely glad to have all of this extra time at home over the last year,” she says, “time to do projects around the house and time to really get involved in our kids’ education. I really enjoy having a more flexible schedule.”
But day to day, moment to moment, it can be hard. “Having to totally change our schedule and expectations every time the school schedules change (which at this point feels like a weekly occurrence), and simply just never having time to focus because everyone has such conflicting needs is exhausting,” she says. Although many people are frustrated with the monotony of the past year, with five children ranging in age from 5 to 16 at four separate schools, Mills feels the opposite. “I’m starting to daydream about having a more predictably scheduled life, when at this point in the school year I’m usually daydreaming about having full days without a schedule over summer break!”