So – have you formed a COVID bubble yet? No? Don’t be so sure. I had one long before I’d even heard of them! A COVID “social bubble,” according to guidelines issued recently by Alameda County, CA, is “a stable group of not more than 12 individuals, who may attend outdoor social or other events together. A social bubble may be comprised of a combination of households, but no household or individual may participate in more than one social bubble [with certain exceptions].”
So when I have the occasional socially distanced visit with a friend who lives alone, outdoors, eight feet apart, we are in a social bubble. Who knew?
Social bubbles have been forming nationwide, both organically and more intentionally. Another local example is that of Jesse Moriarity and her neighbors, who gather outside to enjoy carry-in meals on Friday evenings.
“We have really great neighbors, and for some of us, we have only children,” said Moriarity. “This is torture for only children. Our son had no one to talk to but adults for three months. Zoom just isn’t his jam. So that’s how it started.”
The social bubble includes several immediate neighbors. “We knew we needed some ground rules for this,” she said. “We are not going into anybody’s house. We bring our own food.”
A scary experience early in the pandemic established trust in the neighborhood. One husband, just returned from the Bahamas, became “incredibly sick.” The wife “called all of us immediately because we had all been together the day before,” Moriarity said. “Because of that experience we all trust each other. They called us immediately. There was no judgement, just, ‘Is he okay? What can we do?’ We were all just together. We have a lot of trust among us that no one is going to hide [illness] or be embarrassed or worry about being judged.” Fortunately, the husband did not have COVID-19.
When forming a social bubble, “You’re asking a group of people to really, really trust each other, and I think that experience made it easier,” she said. “These families all trust each other and I think we’ve all been honest with each other about our risk factors. It’s been nice that we can talk about those things.”
The social bubble of four families includes one healthcare provider, and several people who work in offices, as well as one that has someone come into the home to provide childcare. Still, the participants feel that the rewards of socialization for both parents and children are worth the risk.
“There are six children, spread out in age from 5 to 12, and they are so sweet to each other! They are so happy to be together after months of playing alone in their yards,” Moriarity said.
The group has been meeting for about a month. “It’s been so nice,” she said. “I am definitely the extrovert in my family, and this is filling my cup back up. If we need to self-quarantine again in the fall, we certainly will, but for now I feel like my cup is filling up, which is wonderful. This is just what we needed, and summer in Maine is just lovely!”
Moriarity acknowledges that the group is taking a risk. “We have one other neighbor who stayed in quarantine because he wants to visit his father, who is really ill. He needs to stay secluded, so we keep our distance and just wave at him. But mental health is also really important and I think we’ve got to figure out how to take care of both. There’s so much out there on how to reopen a business, but nobody is talking about here’s how to reopen your lives. How do you spend time with people? I’m glad we figured it out.”
The health order issued by Alameda County in early June detailed formation of social bubbles, or childcare or youth activity units, allowing members of different households to socialize – carefully. Recommendations include:
And a recent healthline.com article also detailed what they deemed the “double bubble,” a concept being used in Canada and New Zealand, in which two households may interact, with safety restrictions. Households with a high-risk member should not consider such an arrangement, according to the experts cited. Choose people who add to your quality of life, and be careful not to get into a situation where you are choosing to socialize with one side of the family over the other. Social distancing and face covers should also be used among double bubble participants.
All that said, however, the Maine CDC has not taken a position on social bubbles. “Physical distancing, use of face coverings in public, and good personal hygiene, including frequent handwashing, remain the best ways for people to limit potential exposure to the virus that causes COVID-19,” said Maine CDC spokesman Robert Long.
DOVER-FOXCROFT/SEBEC – Like most of us during the stay-safe-at-home closures, Patrick Myers is balancing needs at home with those of his workplace. And in Myers’ case, as executive director of the Center Theatre, that workplace is well known to anyone who enjoys taking in a movie, live music, plays or standup comedy close to home.
The theater stayed open for a time, doing extra disinfection between shows, “but it quickly became obvious we had an obligation to our staff and the public to close even before we absolutely had to by state mandate,” Myers said. “I think it was certainly the right decision, given the situation. I don’t think there’s any reason the Center Theatre should have stayed open at the risk of spreading a virus through the community. For better or worse, while the theater is vital to our wellbeing, it is not essential to our day-to-day lives.”
The first week after closing was spent scrambling to get everyone set up with the technology and a process to work from home. With those issues resolved, “we began to look outward again, at how we could contribute to the community, and what we could realistically do.”
The Center Theatre launched its Keep in Touch campaign to help folks feel more connected while also providing some revenue for the nonprofit during this downtime.
“The first thing we did was make our marquee available,” Myers said. “Folks make a donation and get a message up on the marquee for a day. We’ve had a fairly good response to that.” When sponsored messages don’t appear, the marquee displays humorous reminders to practice social distancing, or shares other community information. “We also are using our ad space in The Eastern Gazette so that folks will know where to get information or additional resources in the community,” he said.
And Keep in Touch Online is a service to create and deliver short video messages. “So folks, for a small donation, tell the theater who they want a video to go to and what they want the video to say, and we’ll connect with some of our talented actors and volunteers to record a short message that will be sent to the recipient,” Myers explained. “It’s just a fun surprise, a way to spread a little bit of joy with a birthday message, an anniversary message or just something silly to make somebody smile. It will be interesting to see what people come up with!”
The theater’s weekly e-blasts have evolved, now including free resources for online entertainment and other items of interest to help everyone beat the extended cabin fever season this spring.
“And while we’re closed, we are also making available for one week at a time videos of past performances at Center Theatre,” Myers said. “We don’t want folks to forget the great work that has gone on and will go on in the future. It’s a nice way for people to look back and see some old shows that they probably haven’t seen in quite a while.”
Work on the second screen in the former Center Coffee space has come to a halt as closures elsewhere have slowed down equipment installation and the arrival of funding. “It was supposed to be finished on Friday, April 10 with a grand opening on the 17th, but I can’t make any predictions now,” said Myers.
And what of the Maine Whoopie Pie Festival, for which the theatre is a presenting organization? “As of right now we are still hoping the festival can go on as scheduled, on June 27, but in the event it does have to be postponed, we will have a new date set shortly,” Myers said. “We definitely don’t want to cancel. It will happen one way or another!”
Myers said that to make a donation or for more information, visit centertheatre.org, call 564-8943 or mail to 20 East Main Street, Dover-Foxcroft, 04426.
Safe on the farm
Having businesses and schools closed has meant big transitions at the Myers homestead, as well. “We have two kids now doing school work from home, and both adults working from home,” Myers said. “None of us had ever had anything like this in our lives, where we now have to juggle not only family chores, but also checking in the morning to see who needs bandwidth for a conference call or school work.
“Out in the sticks there is not always great bandwidth, so we are just figuring out a new schedule and a new rhythm for every day,” he said. “We are trying to give each other space and the benefit of the doubt, knowing that it’s a new experience for everyone and it affects everyone a little bit differently.”
Teresa Myers, conservation specialist with the Maine State Museum, is working from home on projects, policies, guidelines and future exhibits.
Their daughter, Alice, 13, “is adjusting very well, keeping busy with school work, and thrives on being self-motivated,” said Myers. “She’s very good about keeping her own schedule, and is frankly enjoying having more free time to herself these days.”
The household gained a new member when Patrick’s cousin, Sami Bitat, 17, moved from Algeria to “sort of have the quintessential American high school experience – which has changed somewhat,” Myers said. “He really adjusted to school in the states very well, and then, like everyone else, had the rug pulled out from under him. He’s been through multiple transitions over the last eight months.”
Fortunately, there isn’t much livestock on the farm to care for these days, other than chickens cranking out so many eggs that Myers joked the family had a quota to eat four apiece each day. He used to sell eggs, but found it “more trouble than it was worth.” Now, excess eggs are donated to the food cupboard.
With spring in the air, there are culverts to shovel out to avoid flooding, and gardens to prepare. “There’s plenty of that work going around,” he said.
To relax, the family plays games and “tries to sit down for meals every once in a while together, but mainly just get outside to do some work or get out in the woods to just get away and have a change of scenery,” Myers said.
And finally, on the home front, he quipped, “the dog loves that we’re here all the time but I think the cat’s getting a little pissed off that we aren’t giving him half the day to be on his own in the quiet!”
ST ALBANS – When Agnes Totherow, 82, contacted The Eastern Gazette on April 9, she was frightened, in pain and frustrated! Agnes, who lives alone, has needed a hip replacement for months. She’s been in too much pain to leave the house over the winter, to sleep well, or even to stand with her walker long enough to cook for herself. And because of the COVID-19 risks, her surgery, scheduled for March, was postponed to April. Now that’s been postponed, too.
“Dear God, I hurt,” Agnes said. “I walk from my chair to the kitchen and I’m in such agony!”
Compounding her worries is that she tried to get Meals on Wheels – and landed on a waiting list. Her daughter, who lives nearby, picks up her groceries, as well as doing her own errands and those of another elderly family member. Neither woman has a lot of gas money, according to Agnes, plus she hates to see her daughter out there risking infection.
“I’m worried for my young’un,” said Agnes. “She can’t stay long. She’s in and out, afraid of infecting me or anybody else.”
Agnes spends a lot of time “yelling at the TV,” she said. “I have to just sit here and suffer, but that’s not my problem. My problem is, I see these people out running around. Do they not understand they need to stay in? Is there something somebody can do to make these people stay in, for the people like me that need medical help and can’t get it [until COVID-19 restrictions are lifted]? Please make these people understand!”
So to be clear, throughout Maine and our nation, there are people going without surgeries and preventative care they need until we have successfully flattened the curve enough for medical practices to return to normal. And there are elderly people with limited resources stuck in their homes, worried for their families and having a hard time paying for the food and medications they need, or the gas to fetch them. Some of those people aren’t physically up to cooking meals. And many of those people are experiencing loneliness and anxiety.
Staying safe at home and practicing the recommended hygiene when we must go out is vital. The longer it takes to flatten the curve, the longer it will be before we can get back to whatever our new normal is – and folks like Agnes can get what is certainly essential healthcare to them.
In the meantime, check on your neighbors, and learn what resources might be available to help meet any needs. A call to the St. Albans Town Office proved helpful.
Town Clerk Charlin Williams knows Agnes, and said she is “a sweet lady.” Williams planned to contact Meals on Wheels to see what might be done to move Agnes up the waiting list, and to invite a friend from church to take turns dropping meals at Agnes’s door now and then.
A call to the local town office is a good place to start when searching for resources, Williams said. Many communities have service clubs or volunteer groups trying to help out at this time.
In St. Albans, Hartland, Palmyra and Ripley, for example, the Hartland-St. Albans Lions Club agreed at their last meeting, nearly two months ago, to transport food to the homes of individuals or families who are self-quarantined due to a positive COVID-19 diagnosis in the household.
“We are not offering to [pay for] the food for people, but to help them by bringing it to the door and leaving it there,” explained Robert Davids, president of the local Lions Club. The club will grocery shop, and also pick up boxes from food cupboards for delivery.
Agnes didn’t fit the criteria, but that didn’t stop Davids from giving her a call, and then delivering groceries paid for out of his own pocket, when Williams told him about her plight.
“I don’t really know why but we haven’t gotten any calls, until I got the call from the town office yesterday about this lady in St. Albans,” Davids said. “I haven’t met her face to face. I called her and found out what sorts of things would help get her though the weekend, then went to Moosehead Market for microwave meals, milk, peanut butter and other items she suggested might be helpful. She asked me to leave them on a chair at the top of the ramp, because she can’t bend down enough to pick them up. This is not what the Lions were planning on doing, but I had the chance to help her out myself, so I bought the food and took it to her.”
And in a more roundabout search for resources, The Eastern Gazette reached out to a volunteer group in the Dover-Foxcroft area involving a partnership between The Commons at Central Hall, Helping Hands with Heart, and United Way. Dr. Lesley Fernow, who is heading up efforts to organize grocery/prescription deliveries in that area, called Agnes herself, and also planned to connect Agnes with a United Way volunteer in Palmyra who had offered to call shut-ins during this time of isolation.
“I was so down that day, it was terrible,” Agnes said during a follow-up call on April 13. Having lost power for three days, Agnes risked going to stay with her daughter until the lights were back on. “And I got some sleep last night,” she said, sounding more chipper.
“I also got to thinking, there are other souls out there in worse shape than I am that need help,” she said. “I’m just praying for them and asking God to hurry up and get this mess over with!”