Two Cars, a Beach & FaceTime

How to Visit Your Mom During a Pandemic

Not seeing my mother during the pandemic is excruciating.

I want to hug and kiss her, but she’s not in my quarantine pod. And if I had Covid-19 unknowingly, I couldn’t bear the thought of infecting Mom, especially since she is nearing 90. We were good about keeping socially distant in the summer and fall, but now that winter is here, it’s harder.

So we came up with this idea:

Destination: The Beach. (My mother lives minutes from it.)

It was a snowy Sunday afternoon, a day when I would be doing a family visit anyway. My brother (who lives near my mother and is basically in the same pod) drove her to a clear section. There we parked bow-to-bow (or headlights-to-headlights) and tuned in to FaceTime.

Just like this insidious virus, the parking arrangement on the beach was strange/pathetic/sad. My mother and brother were sitting directly in front of me in their car and we had to use FaceTime to communicate.

We chatted for about thirty minutes until, even with the heater on, the car began to get too cold for my mother.

My brother hit reverse and backed out. I drove over his tracks and headed towards the highway. When our “visit” was over, everyone was happy. We didn’t even have to use hand sanitizer and masks. It was just two cars, a beach, and FaceTime.