The COVID Pandemic Through the Eyes of An 80-year-old

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a dreadful experience for us all. State-wide lockdowns halted us from living the everyday life we were so accustomed to living. Not to mention the mask mandate that still leaves the country divided. But most importantly, it disallowed many of us to see our family, friends and loved ones. And while that sentiment is fair, if you were to look at all of this from the glass-half-full perspective rather than glass-half-empty, you’d see that the pandemic actually forced us to fully appreciate the simplicities of life. However, that doesn’t eliminate the mental and emotional ramifications associated with the pandemic.

Curtis Harris is an 80-year-old African American man who’s “seen it all,” but hopes he’ll never see anything like the COVID-19 pandemic again.

Harris worked as a Milwaukee County city bus driver for over 50 years. He “watched the world continue to change” sitting in the driver seat of that bus.

As he sat reminiscing, flipping through an old photo book that housed dozens of cherished memories from his past, he couldn’t help but shed a tear.

“I didn’t know if I would ever see my grandchildren again,” Harris said. “One day you can see them anytime you want, the next day that opportunity is gone.”

He has two kids, Judy and Joe, along with four grandchildren: Brittany, Brandon, Adam and Abby.

Unable to leave his nursing home due to the quarantine restrictions, he felt himself becoming increasingly sad or “maybe even depressed.” He felt lonely.

That is until he discovered the “magical” invention that is facetime. He said one call from his grandkids brightened up his day.

“Listen man, I’m old.” Harris said. “I don’t know how to work this thing, but I got tired of just hearing their voices, I wanted to see them.”

So one day, while on the phone with his daughter, she asked why he never used the facetime app on his iPhone and she walked him through it. After that he was on facetime anytime his family got the chance to call or time to answer him.

“He never stops calling,” said Judy Harris, his daughter. “He’s probably going to call somebody right after this, but we love it. We’ll gladly pick up every call.”

But after a while, that stopped filling the void. He missed his family. He missed the get-togethers and family dinners. He missed the contagious laughs that took over the whole room. He missed holidays, which he said had even stopped bringing him cheer.

As weeks passed, Harris stayed glued to the news. He didn’t want to miss the news that the lockdown was over. And even when it was, his family were afraid to visit him because their worst fear was somehow giving him the coronavirus.

Things just weren’t the same.

Although the country was divided, he was excited about the potential of a vaccine.

“I’ve taken many vaccines in my life, my kids have had many growing up,” Harris said. “I know it’s not popular to trust the government, but I’m 80 years old; I need the best preventive measures.”

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He went to get his shots as soon as it was available for him to do so. Soon after, his family followed suit and got their shots to finally become reunited.

The night before the reunion was like the night before Christmas as a kid for him. He could barely sleep with his mind so focused on the next day.

He woke up, brushed his teeth, took his shower, got dressed; more dapper than usual and patiently waited for his family to call and say they were outside to pick him up.

Then his phone finally rang. It was his daughter. He answered it and ran, as fast as an 80-year-old man could, out of the nursing home before his daughter even got the words, “we’re outside” out.

He was overjoyed to hug his loved ones. Loved ones he was unsure if he would ever hug again.

He got in the car, closed the door and felt alive again.

The roller coaster of emotions he had to go through only made him love life even more.

“It’s easy to be depressed when everything seems to be going bad,” Harris said. “But when you get past the problem you’ve got to look back and think about everything that problem has taught you and appreciate it. I’m just an old man who finally learned to never take life for granted.”