The pandemic robbed life of simple joys in 2020.
COVID-19 stripped Lindsey Overstreet, a Mosaic Medical behavioral health social worker, of eating birthday cake worry-free because of the germs spread across the creamy frosting after the candles are blown out.
COVID-19 stole time from Tammy Everhart, a family nurse practitioner at Summit Medical Group in Bend, who couldn’t visit her 96-year-old mother indoors until they were vaccinated.
And the pandemic erased Stefanie Nelson’s Bend support system after her husband and business partner died suddenly of a pulmonary embolism. Grieving a loved one alone was rough for the co-owner of Cyclebar in the Old Mill District.
As news of the virus spread across the nation in early 2020, Central Oregon residents feared its arrival. It hit home March 11, 2020, when Dr. George Conway, Deschutes County Health Services director, St. Charles Health System chief executive physician and Bend’s Mayor reported the first case.
Since that day, more than 8,800 people have tested positive for the virus and 113 have died of the disease in Deschutes, Jefferson and Crook counties.
They were friends, neighbors and family members.
“This past year has been marked by many sacrifices and inconveniences endured by our communities,” Conway said in an email. “We know that many have postponed weddings, canceled gatherings, missed visits with family members, balanced teaching children amongst life’s demands and put in a tremendous effort to keep families, friends, and neighbors safer.
“I have been heartened to see the way our region has pulled together to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and also maintain the Central Oregon spirit.”
In the past 365 days, Central Oregon residents have learned to live with the virus.
With every activity, Overstreet, 36, evaluates the COVID-19 risk. She thinks of it as a budget and she only has so much to spend. Thanksgiving dinner was a hard no. But sending her 3-year-old to preschool, a yes.
“It’s been hard,” Overstreet said. “I have strained relationships because of decisions we made around the holidays. Every interaction and decision feels hard and heavy and wrought with uncertainty.”
Everhart, 58, skipped the holidays, too. It didn’t seem right. Neither did hugging or kissing her mom. But going for a ride in the car is now safe from COVID-19.
“It’s been a year that every time I turned around we were hampered by something,” Everhart said. “It will be nice to go out with friends again. Zoom is not the same. And we’ll be wearing masks for a while.”
Time stopped for Nelson on Feb. 22 when her husband, Kirk, died. Looking back at the isolation and the sadness, she realized she did the only thing to keep her sanity. With her spin studio closed from efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, Nelson isolated with her parents in California.
“When I look back, I see how awful it was,” Nelson said. “I don’t know how else to describe it. It was one shock after another. I lost my husband. I lost our income and our business was shut down.
“I’m so much better now. I am so thankful that I didn’t know how long this would last, or I would have lost it.”
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