April 15, 2020

I hope, as much as possible, that you all had a good Easter.

Here in the Ashbury household, we managed a feast, of sorts. My daughter does all the shopping now, and she was able to get a bone-in-ham during her last trip out. She also picked up a few yams, because in our family you really can’t have the ham without the yam. I had wanted Brussels sprouts too, because that is one veggie the entire family likes. I did have some frozen ones and decided they would do, so I called the planning done.

Until Saturday, when our second daughter texted and asked if I needed anything at the grocery store, since she was going to get her groceries. I thanked her, and she dropped off those fresh sprouts a couple of hours later.

Anymore when we get one of those bone-in-hams, we don’t put the whole thing in the oven. First, when you purchase a large ham, the kind of which they have at our grocery store, it’s already cooked. Now there is usually more meat on one of those things than we can eat in one sitting, so we cut the whole thing up on the day we plan to have the main meal. I place the pieces we want to heat for supper in a casserole dish. We set aside some to fry up for a breakfast in the week to come, and then we designate a good portion for what the family has dubbed “ham and pickle”.

It's not really a salad, though I have seen something similar sold at the market under the name of “meat salad”. Our variation is cubed ham and enough pieces of sweet mixed pickles for accented flavor (I use the green pickles and never the cauliflower). They go into the food chopper and come out…chopped. Putting them in a bowl, I stir to make sure the pickle bits are mixed evenly then add some mayonnaise, and mix that in as well and presto, you have a meat spread for sandwiches. You can use those small dinner hams, too, but it doesn’t taste quite as good as it does when I use the bone-in ham.

We have a bowl of that in the fridge right now, and I know it won’t last long. The rest of that ham, except for 2 pieces my daughter hid away to fry up for breakfast one day this week, is a fond memory. It fed the three of us, as well as our second daughter and her son who is our grandson.

Again, we did the social distancing “pass of the ready to heat and eat food” from us to her. That way we can talk face to face for a few moments even if we can’t hug.

I was trying to figure out how long David and I have been “staying at home”. I think that by the time the Premier of our province instituted a state of emergency proclamation (closing all non-essential businesses) on March 17th, we’d given up going to the grocery store. Our pharmacy delivers, so that covers just about everything except the doctor. My next appointment is early May. When that week arrives, I’ll go to the lab on Monday and the doctor on Thursday and that will be my first excursions since the second week of March.

As of today, we’ve been home for 29 days. The Premier is asking the legislature to extend the emergency proclamation another 28 days, to June 2. Here in Ontario, there is no official “stay at home” order, although the Premier has the legal authority to issue one. He’s reluctant, he says, because it feels heavy handed. He is threatening fines for those who insist on trying to congregate in the area’s parks. We’ll see how it goes but I’m with him: I don’t understand what people aren’t getting about this situation, either. You can have the virus and suffer no symptoms whatsoever, but you can spread it to me, who will. Seems easy enough. Stay home.

We feel very lucky, David and I. Despite our being seniors and being considered to be among the “most vulnerable” for this disease, staying home hasn’t been especially hard for us. As you grow older you understand that while you may not have any control over the events that happen around you or even to you, you have complete control over the way you react to those events.

I know that how I react to what happens to me, and to life in general, is my choice, my decision. I can’t rightly complain about having to “stay home”. It would be beyond silly for me to complain about not being able to go out anywhere when I really didn’t care to do so very much before Covid-19, anyway.

I do miss hugging my loved ones, but I will hug them again. I think of a couple of friends whose oldest son and his family lived in Dubai for several years. It was a long time between hugs for them and that for them was normal.

I keep in touch with our son and his family via text. One of our nephews and his wife sent us a delightful “snap chat” Happy Easter message and that made us smile. I routinely text my grandchildren and their spouses, just to check in.

Most of us have wonderful technology at our fingertips in this day and age. So please, don’t complain about not being able to do the things you want to do with your loved ones. Stay in touch and up to date with them using the tools you have. Let them know you love them.

And stay at home now so that y’all will be alive later to have yourselves a huge hug fest.

Love,
Morgan
http://www.morganashbury.com
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury