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| These are the locked iron gates closing off easy access to the church across from our 300-year-old stone villa in Boveglio, Italy, in 2013. |
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We shake our heads in wonder as to why we’re holding up so well emotionally. Is it a concerted daily effort, or is it a by-product of our long-term goal of attempting to remain upbeat since the onset of our travels, during even the toughest of times?
For me, being in lockdown in this hotel room in India is a piece of cake compared to having emergency open-heart surgery in February 2019 and the horrific long recovery with complications.
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| This gate was locked, preventing us from getting inside the church. |
So what if we can’t go outside. So what if we mostly eat the same meals over and over again. So what if we hand wash all of our clothing which, on occasion, smells moldy when dry due to the air-con in the room and how long they take to dry. So what if we have no social interactions outside of this room. So what if we don’t have the freedom to live in a more appealing environment.
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| You are overlooking the iron railing around the cemetery. |
Are our “heads in the sand” in denial of what may prove to be a year-long-hotel-room-confinement in Mumbai, India? We stayed in a self-imposed lockdown for a few weeks, even before the official lockdown began in India on March 24th, the day we moved into this hotel.
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| Another view of the cemetery from the iron railing. A gate was also locked to the main entrance, but we could enter through an unlocked side gate. |
In total, we’ve been in lockdown since March 12th, the day we discovered our planned upcoming cruise scheduled for April 3rd, from Mumbai to Greenwich, UK, was canceled when we chose to end our 55-day private tour of India with three more weeks remaining until completion. This results in a total of 137 days since we’ve been confined. So what?
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| These steps were much steeper than they appear here, more so than many of the steps on the walk to Bar Ferrari in our neighborhood. We found an unlocked gate allowing us to enter at the bottom of these steps. |
Maybe we do have our heads in the sand. So what? It’s helping us get through. But, most of all, the fact that we are safe and unlikely to contract COVID-19 makes this confinement all the more tolerable.
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| These were the first gravesites we spotted as we entered the cemetery. |
Sure, it would be great to be able to have a glass of wine or cocktail now and then. Sure, it would be great to have social interactions, shop at a grocery store, cook a meal, use a washing machine, hang up clothes on an outdoor clothesline, or feed visiting wildlife at the edge of a veranda. Sure, it would all be nice.
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| Tom, ancestry.com obsessed, was fascinated with the stories revealed by the many headstones, names, dates, and photos. |
Hopefully, someday in the future, all of this will transpire. But, at the growing rate of infection in many countries that we’d consider visiting, we patiently remain in a state of limbo, not with our heads-in-the-sand, but instead, a safe state of acceptance and reverence for this awful disease that we avoid at all costs.
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| Some of the headstones were quite impressive, both old and new. |
There’s no easy answer. We walk with vigor. We talk with vigor. We laugh with vigor, especially on those mornings when Tom asks as he did today, “What’s on the agenda for today?”
We don’t have to clean, make the bed, do dishes, or sweep the floor! We get to go for a walk several times! And, I answer, “Guess what? We get to “order room service twice!” We get to “go to the movies!”
But, most of all, one more time, we get to write to all of you!
Photo from one year ago today, July 16, 2019:
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| This is the over-the-top Kylemore Abbey, a former home, castle and grounds of a wealthy family in the 1800s. We visited this site, taking photos, while in Connemara, Ireland, one year ago. Please click here for more photos. |