Challenges of Being in Quarantine With My Grandma
My story of staying with my grandma during self-quarantine
If you’re reading this article you might shout at me why I would quarantine myself with a high-risk patient. Surely you have the right to ask me why I would do that. But I should probably explain to you why I had to go into self-quarantine first.
Travel related self-quarantine
I got back from Namibia about three weeks ago. Coming from a country outside the European union I had to go into self-quarantine. Those are the laws in Germany.
I had the option of going to my parents' place, but then my sister wouldn’t be allowed to visit my parents during that time and I didn’t want that. She still needs them. My mom and her sisters decided then I could go to my grandma.
My grandma isn’t getting in contact with anyone anyway. So, it would be easy for two of us to follow the rules for the quarantine. Plus, nobody was worried I could have the virus. I was coming from a country, which by that time had only five infected people. I mean sure there was a chance I could have brought it with me, but the chance was very low.
However, I do also see things differently. My grandma is struggling a lot with the lockdown. Due to the lack of social interactions. She’s very lonely. Mentally she degraded a lot. Despite being over 80 years old she’s physically fit enough to work in her own garden, grow vegetables, and dig up the whole area.
But mentally it’s a different story. And mental health is very important. Often getting ignored in our society. But mental illnesses kill people too. Just like the virus does. And mental illnesses have to be addressed too. Just like any other illness.
So, that is why I decided to go into self-quarantine staying with my grandma. And the laws anyway changed a few days into my quarantine and I was allowed to leave since I came from a country with such a small number of infected people.
But I didn’t leave. I stayed for a period of two weeks. I stayed for my grandmother. I stayed because she enjoyed my presence. I stayed so that I could listen to her endless stories. I stayed because I wanted to. And I stayed because I enjoyed it.
The challenges
I was facing a few challenges staying with someone over 80. I was facing those challenges because I wanted to work and get things done in the time I wasn’t allowed to go out.
- No WiFi
The first challenge was, that there was no WiFi. For someone who owns a blog and just started earning money for writing on different platforms, a good internet connection is a requirement for being able to work. But I knew this before.
I got a SIM card and all I had to do was book an internet flat-rate. I had to improvise a bit, but as a traveler, I’ve dealt with worse. And as a traveler, I’ve used my own mobile hotspots a lot.
2. Not enough charging points
The second challenge was charging points. Somehow, her flat isn’t designed for someone who wants to charge four electronic devices at the same time in the same room. And I didn’t think about it beforehand.
Not having extension cords or cords with multiple plugs I had to charge my items in different rooms and walk there and back if I would need something from my phone while working on the laptop. Yeah, my laptop didn’t have as many charging ports as I wanted him to have either.
3. Working on the laptop every day
And with all this time I spent staring at the screen, my grandma would ask me every day what I am doing. She would obviously forget my answer from one day to the next one, but she would also simply not understand how someone can earn money by staring at a screen and moving the fingers over a black piece of magic.
She wouldn’t understand that I was working and would talk to me all the time. If I had the earphones in or not didn’t make a difference. I obviously spent a lot of time talking to her, but every day I would spent a few hours writing.
Writing and reading. Reading other people’s work. Because that is just as important as writing. But however, once again I improvised. Successfully. A few articles with lots of views came out of this time. The time I spent with my grandma.
“And yes Grandma, I am getting paid for this article. I don’t know how much yet. It will depend on how successfully I promote it once it’s published. But I take a break now and I will listen to your story from 1947.”
4. Listening to the news over and over again
A challenge I was facing that might not have been a challenge for most of you was listening to the news. My grandma would often watch TV in the afternoon or evening. The spot where I would get the fastest internet connection would also be in the same room as the TV.
That way I would see the TV in the background. And listen to the same news every hour. They actually play the exact same recording for a few hours in a row.
I don’t watch TV. I don’t read the newspaper. Or listen to the radio. I get enough information from what is happening in the world anyway. Without checking the news all the time. I don’t need all these horrible stories about how broken our world is.
One person can’t handle all the bad that is happening in the world. It’s not possible. There is too much disaster going on. And I don’t want to get depressed because of watching the news all the time. This is my kind of self-protection.
I guess it’s not working now. But it has a good side too. They just said that I don’t have to be quarantine any more.
They did?
Yes, Grandma. Did you not listen? That’s great news. I like good news. The news should spread more positivity. Less crime and bad incidents and more positive news and stories of successful events and people. That’s my opinion at least.
The positivity you spread will come back to you. For sure!
Thanks to watching the news on TV and reading the newspaper every day my grandma knows everything about the virus. The Chinese created the virus in a lab.
They did?
She is explaining to me how they did it. And how you can’t get it again if you had corona once. She is asking why I don’t know about it. I guess I should listen more to the news. Or she shouldn’t believe everything she reads or hears. However, I don’t talk about the virus anyway.
“So don’t read the number of infected people, please. I do not want to hear it. It won’t change my life in any way if I know the numbers of infected people or not. So just leave it. Please.”
Nobody works on weekends
And then there was that conversation. I mean in general to explain to my grandma that I will be working at a skydiving operation is a challenge by itself since not even half of the people in my age know what that is or understand how you can make money with it.
Then they all don’t get it why I would want to jump out of a plane. By myself. I must be crazy. Which I obviously am. But actually this season I will be working on the ground. Not jumping myself but organizing the operation on the ground instead.
While everyone working in this industry knows that it is a step back on the corporate ladder. But instead of feeling sorry for me like they would be for anyone else doing a step backward they are instead relieved that I don’t HAVE to jump out of a plane.
Saying it like I would be happy about it too. Like I would normally be forced to jump out of a plane. If anyone is forced to jump out of a plane then it is either an emergency or something that should be stopped immediately.
However, telling you that it is difficult to explain to anyone what my work is like how on earth am I going to explain to my grandmother what I am doing for a living. Next to writing. Which is already confusing.
Well, I did my best in explaining I will be working in an office. Which is kind of true. It is just a different type of office. I also told her that I would drive there on Sunday to meet the people and introduce myself.
She looked like she understood. But the next morning she came out of her bedroom with something on her mind she had to tell me before saying good morning.
“I just realized this morning that it is Sunday. So I had to tell you that you can’t visit these people today. You have to drive on Monday and go there when they are at work.”
Right. So now I had to explain that people do work on weekends too. Which she should know. Because there are many of us. And that we actually only work on weekends. And that I will be working every weekend from now until the end of October. And that I have been working almost every weekend for the last five years.
Because that is what you do if you work in an industry like this one. Or if you work in tourism in general. You don’t have normal weekends. Tuesday was often my weekend. I’ve worked most of the time six days a week. Several months even seven days a week. But that was stupid.
“However, I need to leave now and I don’t know when I will come back today, because it all depends on how many customers we have and a lot of other things. So don’t wait for dinner for me. Not sure if I will make it.”
Privacy?
Well yeah, this is a different one. You know that I love listening to her stories. Especially to those, I haven’t heard before. But sometimes I wouldn’t mind some privacy. For example when I need to go to the bathroom. But that doesn’t bother her. That I closed the door behind me.
She starts a new story. On the other side of the door. So I’m sitting here on the toilet listening to the weekend trips she planned this year and which ones got canceled because of corona. And those trips she did before corona. Guess that is just how it is.
Her memory
Yes, we all know that she forgets a lot. It has gotten worse in the last few months. But sometimes I think it’s selective memory. Some things I would never expect her to remember because it happened a few hours ago and her short term memory is almost non-existent.
But then she surprises me. Like this morning. My aunt calls to ask if she should buy us any food. If we need something. And she asks if she should buy us some more croissants. She bought us two the previous day and I ate them both for dinner. My grandma didn’t want them. But her answer surprised me.
“I didn’t eat them, but Anne did. She really liked them. Please buy them again.”
Which was obviously really sweet of her. First of all, it surprised me that she even remembered it. But she didn’t only remember it she also asked her to buy them again. Because she also remembered that I did like them.
So I guess her memory isn’t that bad. She remembers the important things. I think.
My grandma and her sled
This is another story I have a lot of memories about. But this is actually about her memories. One day she kept on talking about sledding.
My grandma would join us for years on our winter holidays and while we would go skiing she would take her sled and do several runs on one of the shorter skiing slopes. Hiking each time back up again. She loved doing that.
She would always have this beautiful smile when she would sit down on the sled. Ready to take off. A smile that reminds of a child. A smile that only kids can have. Maybe it is the smile of herself when she was a child.
She told me which one was her favorite sledding slope. She’s been with the other grandchildren to different skiing resorts too. So she got to know a few places. And explained to me what was so special about that one slope. It wasn’t steep she said. But it was always icy. Difficult for her to hike up the slope. But once she sat on the sled she would race down the hill. She told this story with such excitement. It was beautiful.
She’s been sledding the last time I think it was two years ago. She loved going sledding. Despite the fact, that her youngest sister died back then in Romania. After a sledding accident. At a very young age.
She loved her sister. Maybe that is why she got into sledding. Because of that incident. Maybe it is her way of connecting with the sister she lost way too early. I never asked. I don’t know why.
Lessons I learned from this time spent with my grandma
I definitely know now why I walk everywhere instead of taking a taxi or asking someone to give me a lift. I got this from my grandma. She’s exactly the same. Despite being 80 years old. She still walks almost everywhere.
She definitely walks every day to her garden plot. And she walked last year to the swimming pool on the other side of town. Just because the friend she would always go with didn’t join that day and didn’t give her a lift.
She walked to the swimming pool. To go swimming for an hour. The walk there was already more than enough exercise. Apparently, the lady from the reception realized how exhausted my grandmother was and made her rest before she was allowed to go for a swim.
And she organized her a lift back. Thankfully. Just listening to this story from my Grandma I can hear my boyfriend saying “that is just like you”. Stubborn. Thinks she can do everything by herself. And just walks everywhere.
I guess so. I guess I am just like her in this sense. Just thinking about all the places I walked to. Thinking about the number of times I walked home from parties. And anyway I always walk everywhere. As a child. As a teenager. And now as well.
Another lesson I learned is that we both had lots of responsibilities from a young age. We had to take care of others, run the household, or do other things involving responsibility. That way we learned how to deal with responsibilities and didn’t mind them at all.
About the last lesson, I actually wrote an entire article. But it is also something we have in common. If we don’t feel motivated. If we don’t feel strong then we go for a walk. We go for a walk to clear our minds. To recharge and get motivated again for those things we have or want to do. We also tell others and force them to go for walks when we see they are not happy.
I am really happy about the quality time I spent with my grandma. Nobody can take this time from me. The time I spent with her. It was time well invested.
