1 Quarantine, 3 Places

1.

I think of Maria as a contemporary, although she is Llara, m daughter's age, an alumnae of Boston Latin.

Although we didn't meet at the time, we've walked the same streets, seen the green grass of Harvard Medical School yard. We were probably on the E Arborway Greenline at the same time. We might even have had an ice cream at Sparr's Drug Store sitting side by side. Over a six year period it is more than likely.

My connection with her was the relatively recent result through another BLS graduate on Facebook, Rossi. I thank him for the connection.

She now lives in Spain and has a daughter older than she and Llara were at BLS. I became an avid reader of her blog https://spanishviews.blogspot.com letting me dip into her life where I feel the change of seasons and the locale. I see a part of Spain, I might never have known.

2.

I've watched Robin metamorphosis from a grief-stricken widow, struggling to rebuild her life. My first knowledge of her was a photo on her birthday in front of L'Hostalet's fireplace from the back. What struck anyone about Robin was her hair to her bum. She had a wonderful assortment of hats to protect her from the summer sun in the square.

What a contrast we made when my hair was growing back from my chemo baldness.

Her hair now grazes her shoulder, but is till beautiful.

She melted into the camaraderie of ASM, coffee at the boys (owners of the l'Hostalet) on market days, wrote her heart out, produced exercise videos and took up skiing again.

We cheered her finding a new love when she was ready and is now ensconced with him down the street where we can all hear the 7:05 church bells ring and ring rather than just the quarter, half, three quarter and hour dings.

Her blog https://salleyjrobins.blogspot.com 

3.

People overlap: an American connection, living bilingually, creatives. We three bloggers do.

We are all quarantined because of the Corona virus. We all blog it.

Each morning, I hope Maria and Robin have done a blog.

Our focus may vary from comments on the rules and regulations, the frustrations, the chance to slow down and truly see what we rushed by pre-quarantine, entertainment such as sharing virtual reality tours, food and photos. No topic will be eliminated from our fingers touching the keyboard.

If the French and Spanish quarantine regulations vary, the results are the same. We are constrained in our movements. No longer are choices limited by time, energy or money, but by government decree.

In other times it might be war that limits us, but now it is an invisible virus. There's a combination of not wanting to be one of the fatalities, not wanting to be fined, jailed, or carry the disease to someone else.

Women often share many experiences, we bond, laugh, cry, share: we pick and choose things in our lives that we talk about like falling in love, marrying or having a partner, parenting, a career, loss, fear, doubt, education. We may read the same books, write, paint. We plan out our lives and sometimes our plans come to fruition. Other times events carry us down totally different paths.

I think it is safe to write, that I doubt if any of us planned to live in a quarantine.