Saturdays with Seniors: Guest Post by José DiMauro

José with his wife, Kate .

I am pleased to introduce José DiMauro as our featured “Saturdays with Seniors” blogger today. Born in Argentina, José graduated from medical school at Univ De Buenos Aires and left home in 1963 to start his medical career at Chicago’s Mercy Hospital., From there he became a board certified pathologist at University of Illinois in Chicago, and after retiring, Dr. DiMauro moved with his wife Kate to Admiral at the Lake, where I lead a weekly memoir-writing class. While we all shelter in place, that class is meeting virtually, assigning prompts on their own and meeting and sharing their work via Zoom. Here’s what José came up with earlier this month when the prompt was “Locked In.”

by José DeMauro

The year 2020 started well for us. Winter had been relatively mild in Chicago, and in mid-January, Kate and I were still exulting from our recent vacation to Belize. It was the end of January before I first heard the word “Wuhan.”

That word made me think of a silk-road tale, but to figure out where Whuhan was, I had to search Google Maps. A novel flu-like disease was a growing concern there, but that was at the other side of the world! I didn’t pay much attention.

But then, news of the virus started to multiply…and it was moving west, fast,…Iran…Italy…. As the novel flu-like disease started taking more space on the front-page news, it also started mutating names: coronavirus, CODV-19, SARS-CoV-2. At our safe abode, the Admiral at the Lake, March brought a different sort of “Madness.” On the 5th of March we had an instructive presentation of what still seemed to be at a relatively safe distance. But then, things accelerated, and we had to learn a new vocabulary fast:

• On the 9th of March, we went into “Soft Shutdown”
• On the 12th of March, we “Hardened the shutdown process”
• On the 16th of March we were locked in our apartments for “Prevention and protection”
• On the 18th of March we started to “Shelter in place”
• Finally, on the 21st of March, at the illogical hour for “seniors” of 6 AM, we rushed to Mariano’s across the street for supplies..but no toilet paper
• On Wednesday the 25th, the weather brought one of its rare gifts to Chicago: a temperature of 60 º. Kate and I ventured for a walk along a rapidly-crowding Chicago lakefront, trying to keep our six-foot distance from others. On our return walk, we noticed a helicopter hovering in place and a sudden proliferation of police squad cars. That day Mayor Lightfoot threatened to shut down the lakefront due to overcrowding there. She did just that the next day, and we felt guilty, as if we had caused it just by being outside taking a walk.

Being introverted, I don’t mind being locked-in, I cherish free time to catch-up with my readings. Truth is, I like to be alone.

But in a rapidly interconnected world, we’re in this together. When the virus hit Italy and Spain, the calls began. My parents were born and raised in Italy, then emigrated to Argentina in search of better opportunities. I grew up in Buenos Aires, became a U.S. citizen in 1971, I still have cousins in Rome and Southern Italy, and one of my nephews lives in Valencia, Spain. With many relatives in those hard-hit areas, my cell phone WhatsApp was lightning fast and furious. Fortunately, all my relatives were well, and I really enjoyed getting back in touch with them.

I then took refuge at my computer. The monitor soon filled with well-intentioned friends who decided that I was bored and needed entertainment. What was this? Had my computer been hijacked by a virus, too?!

Now, our lives have settled around waiting for the morning ring alerting us to check our temperature, and the 4 PM ring that announces dinner is at the door. Going down four floors to pick up the mail has become the walk of the day, and once we return, we wash our hands…again. More than ever, we are grateful for our east-looking full wall windows. They bring the light and lake to us. Early on this month, however, we noticed something amiss. Here it was, rush-hour, and Lake Shore Drive, the drive along the lake, was eerily empty. We felt desolate.

But then, we noticed something else. The tree foliage was already turning a timid green. April was starting to creep in, although, we suspected, it didn’t know where it was going yet.