Hays and Susan Carson: Out of the Ordinary
Being Together While We’re Apart
Because we all miss our Fondren family, here are our Sequester Stories—a series of stories and photos by Fondren folks sharing what our “pandemic lives” are about.
Hays Carson
Hays:
Since the coronavirus (COVID-19) came to the USA, almost everybody was quarantined with hopes they won’t get the new virus. The Carson family has been doing all sorts of crazy things in quarantine.
Now that everyone is in lockdown we have online classes, and now since we don’t have to actually be there in person, I got to go to all sorts of classes that I couldn’t go to before. So this summer, I did a class from the San Francisco ballet as well as two acting classes from New York City. Often when I’m in my ballet or acting class, my cat sits there either right beside me or in my Zoom camera taking the stage. I take photos of her whenever possible and share it on my new favorite app called DIY which is only for kids.
My birthday was in June which sadly meant I had to have a party on the app everyone has, Zoom. Although I didn’t get to see my friends, we had so much fun. At my party I got to paint a wooden initial letter, and my friends did the same.
At the very start of quarantine, I had to have online classes till the end of May. Online class was crazy because we had to get an app that never seemed to work for our end of the year testing. Also, we had online Zoom class with our teachers and classmates where we all checked in on each other and did fun things like an at home scavenger hunt. I have been calling all my friends and staying in touch. I’m in an acting group with a few of my friends and we have also been trying to Zoom each other.
We have done a lot of other things in quarantine, so these are just a few. Now it’s my Mom’s turn to share what her quarantine is like with us all!
Susan, Dorsey, and Hays Carson in front of the Carson’s new house.
Susan:
As I am remembering the month of March when this strange situation surfaced into our busy lives, Spring Break continued as planned, as it often happens, around work travel and actual vacation travel. Before leaving Jackson, we brushed off some (what I believed to be overreactive at the time) comments from team members at the office, and proceeded to board a plane for San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Palo Alto. Dorsey attended another conference separately in Texas before meeting up with Hays and me in San Francisco a day later. There, we enjoyed exploring the piers, streetcars, restaurants, and China Town, feeling secure in our vacation mode. We even purchased some solar-powered, waving lucky cats as tongue-in-cheek gifts for our office team back home. I did not notice too much being out of the ordinary at the time, except that there were a few more people wearing masks on the plane and around the airport.
On the last leg of our trip in Palo Alto, the reality of the virus effects suddenly became clear, as we watched students and families who were forced to prematurely leave the ominously deserted campus of Stanford loading dorm room necessities into vehicles. That night at dinner, we spoke with the anxious restaurant owner of a local Mediterranean café, who discussed the possible effects on the restaurant business from the looming pandemic, while generously providing us with complimentary glasses of wine.
Having a sudden urge to return home to Jackson, we flew home and immediately continued packing for our upcoming move to our not-quite-finished new/old home which we had been renovating for 14 months. We decided that if there ever was a good time to pack belongings from a house where we had lived for 18 years, it was during the COVID slowdown.
As far as our firm was concerned, we asked everyone to not return to the office in the populated Capital Towers building downtown, and instead, work remotely from home. While managing the firm from our dining room table during the day, I packed boxes and sorted home items on weekends and afternoons. Choosing not to socialize closely with our non-distancing neighbors in the evenings, we instead sat on our upstairs balcony waving to everyone, listening to concerts streaming free of charge from homebound musicians, and trying new concoctions using mulberries that had dropped from trees onto our driveway.
On Memorial Day, our official house move finally happened, and with a day of working closely and tirelessly with a moving team, safe distancing was impossible. Now relocated, we meet and manage the weekly flurry of construction workers and home professionals at our new and old houses, some wearing masks and others not. Even though Dorsey has had 3 tests done to date, his results have always thankfully come up negative.
An especially challenging transition has been merging into the role of teacher to help Hays finish out her 4th grade school year, and scheduling and monitoring virtual and in-person summer camps and lessons. We are currently working with some of her classmates’ parents to create a safe Montessori pod environment for the next 2 semesters as Jackson Public Schools has announced that only virtual learning will take place through December. It will take some juggling to organize both my work and her virtual instruction, and poor Hays is all too familiar with spending hours at our office almost daily.
Considering everything going on, it seems that with having to practice balance through spending more time at home rather than traveling around the globe, we have learned to better manage change. During this COVID era more than ever, for our family, it is progress and not perfection.