Page 116 - FDCC Pandemic Book

Living in a Pandemic: A Collection of Stories on Coping, Resilience & Hope
do something I hadn’t let myself do all week: I sat down and cried. Full disclosure – I cried again as I typed them. The relief of finally letting go of my carefully constructed façade of competence and control remains one of my most vivid memories from that time.
With another set of hands in the house, things were much improved. I was able to tend to my own needs that had fallen by the wayside, such as sleep and showers. We again had groceries in the refrigerator and could eat meals that had not come from a drive-thru bag. And with April available to help meet mom’s needs, I caught up on deadlines and kept my professional life on track.
In the months since April returned to her life in Nashville, we’ve had several discussions about “the Fall” and its impact on all of us. We have concluded that, without the pandemic, my mother would never have been able to recover in our home. My mom’s doctors and therapists were unanimous in the opinion that her recovery was faster and better in our home than it would have been in a facility, because of the constant motivation and encouragement from family. But again, I am confident that she would not have had the luxury of that recovery if it had not been for the pandemic.
Before COVID-19, I averaged three out-of-towns trips per month. When in town, our usual routine is for my husband and I both to leave the house for work by about 6:30 am, and to return home by about 6:30 pm. This gives us only a handful of waking hours at home each day to prepare meals, take care of our dogs, and accomplish anything necessary to run the household.
This schedule obviously would not have left room for me to take responsibility for caring for an injured older patient. Even more significantly, I would not even have tried. If I had not already been working exclusively from home for two months before mom’s fall, it would never have occurred to me that it was possible to do so.
There are myriad ways in which the virus has been terrible. But its timing, in conjunction with my mother’s injury, gave me two critically important things that lawyers do not usually have: a flexible schedule and constant access to a mental health professional.
During the months when so many lawyers, judges and clients were working remotely, everyone was willing to give each other a little grace. With so many professionals working from home, we didn’t mind seeing a little clutter in the background of our Zoom meetings. We became aware of one another as fellow human beings -- people who have families, pets, and sometimes a little chaos. After two months of working in this “new normal”, I felt comfortable being candid about my mother’s situation with my colleagues, my clients, and even opposing counsel. That honesty made it possible to request an extension when necessary, to explain why I was responding to a client’s
111