John Gianoulidis, 56, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
So, this afternoon I was pondering the last year’s events. About this time last year, I was being filmed for Kafenio to be on the Atlanta Eats show and planning the one-year anniversary/Grand Opening party for Kafenio Avondale. ParkGrounds was plugging along as it has for the last 10 years. We had a great timeContinue reading “John Gianoulidis, 56, Atlanta, Georgia, USA”
Jeffrey N. Johnson, 58, Alexandria, VA, USA
2020 The Ides of March came raging this year,defining those essential and those notin sometimes arbitrary ways. Cursed from dugouts and half-courts,we learn to play chess;banned from classroom and choir,we meditate on piano alone. And in the absence of touch on a larger scale,as lights across the globe extinguishone-by-one, we hunker within our four walls,knowingContinue reading “Jeffrey N. Johnson, 58, Alexandria, VA, USA”
LeNora Faye, 38, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Hindsight is 2021. Can you say “20/20 vision” with a straight face after the year that was? OK, I’m done. Goodnight, everybody! March 2020, I sat on the couch, eyes glued to my television. My fellow Canadians were watching the same thing, counting the minutes with bated breath. A wood podium with a carved mapleContinue reading “LeNora Faye, 38, Calgary, Alberta, Canada”
Richard, 51, Heidelberg, Germany
It’s 7 am. The last day of the year. I drink coffee and smoke a cigarette, obligatory and routine, like every morning. The last 355 days suddenly trickle through me. Everything we believed to be a given, not actually natural to be there all along. What a feeling. A little intense. But standing here inContinue reading “Richard, 51, Heidelberg, Germany”
Leslie Pietrzyk, 50s, Alexandria, VA, USA
2020: The Year that Threatens to Break the Cheery Holiday Letter! But we’re resilient, aren’t we? Dang it: we will find amusing anecdotes and bright spots amid this whipsaw of a year, as our lives careen through lockdowns, anxiety, stress, masks, an election, gallons of Purell, a hoard of canned goods (we’re not eager to actually eat),Continue reading “Leslie Pietrzyk, 50s, Alexandria, VA, USA”
Mary Kay Zuravleff, 60, Washington, DC, USA
Yesterday was Friday, not that we could tell. My husband, our 19-year-old daughter, and I have been keeping it together this spring. Also our dog, Arrow, who was born for social distancing. She’s afraid of most people and dogs, including dog sculptures, as well as cats, children, trucks, raindrops, and acorns. That sums up ourContinue reading “Mary Kay Zuravleff, 60, Washington, DC, USA”
Rick Pacukonas, 72, Vernon, Conn., USA
Seventy-two years into this bruising, bewildering and blossoming life, revelatory insights still inspire my mind to ponder and my heart to seek the poet Ferlinghetti’s “rebirth of wonder.” Perspective is the elder’s comforter. Wrinkled memories shout that I survived the boring ’50s, the wild ’60s, and all the other maudlin decades. Decades that changed theirContinue reading “Rick Pacukonas, 72, Vernon, Conn., USA”
Timothy Gager, 58, Dedham, Mass., USA
2020: A Strange Year to Celebrate — Ten—is a big round number for my sobriety. When my journey started, I didn’t think I could go a day, a week, a month and certainly not a year. Alcohol and drugs were all the life I knew. Now, I know life differently. I can get through today,Continue reading “Timothy Gager, 58, Dedham, Mass., USA”
Iona, 36, South-West England, UK
I started the year with nightmares: 2019 was no better than 2020 for me. Things I’d seen had fried my brain, but I didn’t know it. In April 2019 I had been flying to my old home of Taiwan for a two-week vacation and had had a strange interaction in Hong Kong Airport. A clerkContinue reading “Iona, 36, South-West England, UK”
Kelly, 50, Searsport, Maine, USA
I scrolled through my 2020 photos recently and wasn’t surprised at how many were taken from my living room, looking out the window. It’s where I spent most of the year, really. Sitting on the couch with a book, with the television, with my phone. There were a lot of social media posts callously condemningContinue reading “Kelly, 50, Searsport, Maine, USA”
Brian, 49, Columbus, Georgia, USA
So, I’m sitting here on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day right before the Inauguration after the insurrection. It should be a very happy time. A joyous occasion. But no. Georgia turned blue. I’m a union pipefitter out of Montgomery, Alabama, so Roll Tide Roll. Six National Championships in 12 years. Unbelievable. I’m happy watching moronsContinue reading “Brian, 49, Columbus, Georgia, USA”
Aferdita, 50, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
2020 was an eye-opening year – learning more about the way the country works, watching individuals lie and seeing others ingest and grow with those lies without a second thought. Realizing how many policies and procedures are in place simply as a result of either barely disguised or overt racism. Seeing how delicate this countryContinue reading “Aferdita, 50, Atlanta, Georgia, USA”
Andria, 41, Newton, Mass., USA
It feels unwise to refer to the year 2020 in the past tense, even though I know the calendar has flipped to a new year. It feels like saying 2020 is over will somehow jinx things–2020 will hear me and start to ooze into the new year. I’m an introvert, so at the beginning ofContinue reading “Andria, 41, Newton, Mass., USA”
Mike, 50, Raleigh, NC, USA
Dear Friends and Family, Let’s get this part out of the way: This has been a cluster–uh, a mess of a year, as you well know unless you’ve just emerged from hibernation under a rock in the Mariana trench. Although I’m not big on arbitrary, manmade delineations of time, and don’t see any reason 2021Continue reading “Mike, 50, Raleigh, NC, USA”
Karen, 46, Chatham, Ontario, Canada
Walking Ivy in the Graveyard We found the nuns today. Two long rows in the old section towards the corner near the creek. We step off the path to see them; dozens of identical stones set flush in the ground. The dog jumps around our feet as we sweep mown grass and fallen leaves awayContinue reading “Karen, 46, Chatham, Ontario, Canada”
Penny, 48, Hartford, Conn., USA
2020 has been a much different experience for my husband than it has been for me. I’d already been working from home for quite a while when COVID became the kind of problem that obstructs the paths of people’s lives, so it didn’t affect me professionally. My husband, on the other hand, was released fromContinue reading “Penny, 48, Hartford, Conn., USA”
Dan, 62, Boise, Idaho, USA
Thirty-five. That’s the typical answer when you ask someone to forget their chronological age and just tell me how old you feel like you are. In the same way, 2020 feels like it ended three or four years ago. While January and February were utterly forgettable, COVID sucked the fun out of pretty much everythingContinue reading “Dan, 62, Boise, Idaho, USA”
Gary, 79, Fargo, ND, USA
December 2020 Dear Family and Friends, Lordy, Lordy, won’t it be wonderful when this horror of a year is in the rearview mirror! We want to wish you Happy Holidays, and we hope that the wicked finger of this virus has not touched you or your loved ones or done so softly. We are stillContinue reading “Gary, 79, Fargo, ND, USA”
Jake, 46, Burlington, VT., USA
Family and Friends, It’s hard to find a non-cliché way to say this was the year of Covid. It sucked. But on the upside, and something I’m truly thankful for, all my friends and family are healthy and haven’t suffered terribly from the effects of the pandemic. Katie and I had a busy and unpredictableContinue reading “Jake, 46, Burlington, VT., USA”
Jordan, 27, Minneapolis, Minn., USA
2020 was wild. I think everyone remembers where they were when everything shut down. The last thing they did before the world completely changed and the panic shopping that ensued as an invisible terrorist hit home. I work in an industry that deals with overseas importing, and I remember hearing about COVID19 in late JanuaryContinue reading “Jordan, 27, Minneapolis, Minn., USA”