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                distance. It seemed so strange not to hug my son and sit down for a little visit.
The next week I learned that I could order delivery from Walmart. So Walmart began bringing my orders to the Welcome House,
and the staff brought them to me. I had everything unloaded in the garage. Then I brought in the refrigerated items and washed them with soap and water. Actual food like lettuce I just rinsed. I “quarantined” packaged foods in the garage for a few days before bringing them to the pantry, because someone with COVID-19 at the store could have touched them, and the virus lived on surfaces for several days. Of course, I washed my hands properly and cleaned doorknobs and anything else I touched with alcohol wipes. Our lives had taken on a whole new dimension as we carefully avoided possible points of infection.
Manor House set up a system to make pickups at Walmart and Food Lion. We used that to get prescriptions. They even made arrangements with a liquor store so we could order liquor, and they picked up twice a week. Manor House made every effort to see that we had what we needed.
We ordered most other supplies from Amazon. What would we do if we didn’t have the internet and Amazon?
It’s hard to explain the underlying feeling of discomfort during this time. We were never without anything we needed, but the sudden change in our lives and the fear of getting a life-threatening illness were constant factors dominating our lives.
As people who had always had cars and been able to go where we wanted without concern, this was a new world. For nine weeks, we didn’t leave campus. We ordered online, knowing that some things would not be available that week. In the beginning, there were shortages of toilet paper, facial tissue, hand sanitizer, and some cleaning products. As the virus hit meat packing plants, there were meat shortages for a brief time. While our needs were met, for the first time, we faced the possibility that they wouldn’t be.
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