I drove her home from the airport and we tried very hard not to rob some stagecoaches on the way (thanks, Penina, for helping add some humor in there). (MOH guidelines for driving: mask [cloth acceptable if you don't have a "real" mask] and glove, windows open and passenger in the back seat. I'll say it wasn't conducive to pleasant conversation....)
Once home, it was upstairs to the third floor. Thankfully, her bedroom is there along with our guest room, a full bathroom, a balcony and even a treadmill (sadly, it doesn't work well for the running Chana likes to do, but at least a person can get a few steps in). It's DEFINITELY not a palace up there (those of you who have stayed in our "B&B" are nodding now, I'm sure), but it's a lot better than those in bidud who have their bedroom and that's it; when needing to use the bathroom, those folks need to mask and glove and then wipe down all the surfaces they touched before leaving.
We worked hard to get the third floor to be as pleasant as we could. Shalom Shachne took up the small refrigerator in his office (no workers coming now who need to put their lunch in, anyway) and Penina and Ilana stocked it full of tasty things to eat. We put signs and photos up all over:
Shabbat was, as expected, pretty darn different from a regular week. Shuls are closed, but people were encouraged to go outside on their balconies/gardens and sing Kabbalat Shabbat "alonetogether". What happened was the most beautiful cacophony of singing--some started a little earlier, some started a little later, some were singing on the same street as us, some from one street to our left, some from eight flights of stairs above us. It was SO BEAUTIFUL.
We brought a folding table and chairs up to our second floor hallway where they *just* fit--one chair is at the entrance to the bathroom, one chair at the entrance to our bedroom, one at the bottom of the stairs to Chana's floor and one a few inches away from the stairs going down (it's not terribly dangerous, don't worry, Mom). Shlepping all the food upstairs felt a lot like an indoor version of Sukkos, except without the Sukkah :)
I couldn't think of any games we could play together, as Chana is really supposed to be behind a closed door (she peeked out a few times, but, hey, it was REALLY important that she check out Penina's new skirt to she if she wanted to borrow it), but there was a lot of singing. While I'm sure many families sang extra Shabbos zemiros, we gotta be us and sang every song we could think of that could be switched to have a coronavirus/bidud theme in it. For example:
(With apologies to Frozen)
"knock knock knockknock knock
Chana? Do you wanna build a snowman?
No thanks, I'm in bidud
I never see you any more
Come out the door
It's like you've gone awaaaay (even though you're home)"
(And with apologies to the Beatles)
"Biiiiidud
Don't be afraid
Take two weeks and
You'll feel beeeetter
Remember
To always mask and glove
When you bring homemade muffins
To show your looove, loooove, looooove"
Thankfully, she's still pretty jet-lagged and exhausted from a super busy last week in NY, so there was also a lot of sleeping.
4 days down, 10 to go.....Wish us luck!
