Sister In Law IN ITALY!! - first hand account (great read!)

Hi Everyone....hope you all are having a good start to our 3rd week at home. Crazy to think that my kids have been home 3 weeks now and Phil has been here 1 month!! What I don't want to do is lose track of time, which can be very easy to do! I want to be present and conscious during this time!

Something that has been very close to my heart is my sister in law Jenny who lives in Northern Italy. She has been going through this very difficult time for almost close to two months now. She is newly engaged to her fiance Giuseppe.  She has definitely had a very intense experience; as her family far away here in California, we of course worry, but we are also so grateful to the love of her life Giuseppe who has been with her every step of the way, and they are together, happy and healthy!!! We also know that together they will come out the other side of this dark tunnel together and ready to plan and celebrate a wedding!

My sister in law Jenny is a writer and I knew she would be able to very eloquently share her experience because she is living it day to day and I thought it was important for people to hear and understand what others are going through during this time. So here is her first hand account of what life has been like for her and her fiance in Italy!

Hugs to everyone! ~ Val

From Jenny Makrogiannis, March 29, 2020........

  

Those first 2 weeks were the hardest because (as the first western country where the virus started to really spread) we felt sucker-punched and alone and we still didn’t even know what we were dealing with. As a result, me (and so many) had countless sleepless nights full of panic, anxiety and the dreadful “what-ifs.” That was when we still hadn’t started calling it Covid-19; when were still hearing it was just a little bit stronger than the seasonal flu; when some were wrongfully saying that it was only targeting the elderly with pre-existing conditions; when people weren’t wearing masks to go to the supermarket; when everyone was still crowding into their favorite cafes and strolling close to one another in piazzas. 

  

  

And then on March 8^th the entire region went into lockdown, followed by the entire country three days after that, followed weekly by more and more stringent regulations forcing Italians (a naturally social and extroverted culture) to stay at home and only venture out to their neighborhood market or pharmacy. And that’s where we are today. I’m on Quarantine Day 23 as I write this on March 29^th. The most recent rules say that we can only walk up to 200m from our front door; we can’t drive beyond the limits of our towns; we can’t go out in twos; we can only go out for food or medicine; and if someone does have special permission to drive further because their work is essential, then they have to pass checkpoints and show an almost daily modified form (well, even with everything going on, nothing is going to impact the never-ending constant known as Italian Bureaucracy!) Still, with every new level of these “draconian measures” (as CNN loved to call it)I personally felt relieved because at least all the under-evaluation and miscommunication was (mostly) behind us. Everyone (or at least most people I knew) were on the same page now: we all realized how serious this was and how we all had to stay home to stop the spread.                

But then some funny things started happening, right from the first days under lockdown. Levity and camaraderie (in addition to the already present sadness and anxiety) became our new roommates. I’m sure some of you have seen the videos of Italians singing, dancing, exercising and clapping in honor of the medical heroes, all from their balconies. Add to that countless hilarious memes and gifs (which I’ve subsequently marveled to see translated into French or Spanish or English as this darn virus spread further into Europe and the rest of the world) and that paints a picture of our daily lives. It’s a surreal mix of impromptu dance parties, learning how to bake, discovering the world of Zoom, and being sucked into movie and Netflix marathons. But this seems to be everyone’s reality nowadays.

Yet out here, those light moments are still clouded by the grim reality that over 10,000 people of all ages have lost their lives and those people’s family members weren’t even able to be next to them to say good-bye. We will never forget the images of a long row of military trucks driving all those coffins out of Bergamo. We still grimace at all those ambulance sirens in the distance, even more pronounced since there is no other traffic noise. We still panic if we cough. We still hear more and more stories of friends of friends in intensive care fighting for their lives. Or spouses of friends who are doctors crying on the couch for an hour every single night because of the horrors they have to live through. And of course, we all live with these constant questions: how are we going to actually come out of this? What will life be like? What will the economy be like? Will it come back?

When this started, besides China, no one really seemed to grasp what we were going through. Now, almost every country in the world has been through the same identical pattern from denial and anger on towards adaptation. But there’s good news out here. The numbers of new cases have been slowing. Finally! Less new cases and more people recovering, including a 102-year-old woman who was just released from the hospital. I think we’re seeing the beginning of our curve flattening! Fingers crossed. And let’s hope so, because all those doctors and nurses and paramedics need it. We all need it. People have often asked me if I wish I was back in San Diego or anywhere else during this pandemic. And I can wholeheartedly say I am so lucky and proud to have been able to weather this horrific storm in my adopted country of Italy (and more specifically Lombardy), where I saw swift and decisive action, an amazingly well-organized healthcare system, and a strong solidarity within its warm citizens, who have joined together from the start saying “andrá tutto bene” (everything will be fine). And I believe it will.   ~ Jenny Makrogiannis

ps.....my sister in law Jenny is a writer....you can check out her latest book on Amazon

GREAT READ for 4th-8th graders!!! You can order from Amazon!

https://www.amazon.com/Zafira-Birds-Eugenie-Makrogiannis/dp/069210075X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=zafira+and+the+birds&qid=1585685533&sr=8-1

  

pss.....in honor of my Italian sister in law Jenny and all Italians in Italy

Today's bread recipe was made with Italian Flour!!!!

Mangiare!!!!