Tag: oral history

Diane Lowman is a yoga instructor who has lived in Westport for 23 years. Last July, Diane was named Westport’s Poet Laureate and shares observations of daily life through the haiku she posts on Instagram. Unlike a lot of people, she’s self-quarantined completely alone—“no pets, no people, no nothing”    I didn’t like feeling of being at home alone, but now I’ve learned to make friends with it. “I noticed that before this I spent a lot of time outside of my house because I didn’t like feeling of being at home alone, but now I’ve learned to make friends with it. I’m practicing yoga at home, and making meals for myself. I’m trying to create structure and learning to appreciate the process of making peace with myself.   My sister lives in town as do my ex-husband, his wife and their 10 year old son. My  25-year-old son has also come to live with them. I have a lot of family around me and earlier in the social distancing process, my ex and his family have been gracious about having me over. My sister has had an autoimmune condition so I’m careful about not being with her. I fully feel what it’s like to be alone– but it’s not all negative. There are times when I crave conversation that isn’t electronic, or the casual touch of a hug or saying hi.    This time in isolation and dealing with crisis reminds us that we are more similar than different. It reminds me of 9/11 and how differences dropped and we felt united. I’m seeing this every day. I hope that feeling  lasts–including having us all pitch in to help so many of us who aren’t fortunate. My biggest fear is what will happen to folks who are less able, financial, mentally, emotionally, physically, socially. How will we work to get them through this? I know that the economy will come back but I worry about those who will slip through the cracks until …

Nathalie Laitmon has lived in Westport for 15 years. The writer and mom of three contracted COVID-19 at “The Party”.  One of the earliest sufferers of a mild to moderate version the illness which she describes as “still being like the worst flu feelings one has ever had at once”, Nathalie came forward on social media to share real information about her experience to try to allay community fears. She has already donated her blood plasma for researchers at Mt. Sinai Hospital working on treatments and vaccines for COVID-19.   “Westport has an air that is big enough that you don’t have to come forward to say anything private, but small enough for me to feel incredible responsibility to the town. I never once thought about keeping information to myself especially since the real-time misinformation without context or hindsight is creating a cognitive dissonance with the reality we are used to experiencing.  I feel like I’m on a virtual frontline in terms of sharing information and trying to be an advocate. I’ve had a lot of very private conversations with people I will probably never speak to again just to give reassurance.  Even though I’m an extremely private person, I felt incredible responsibility to constantly check in with people who were at that party. I felt we had a collective illness and if someone pulled through that raised the spirits of everybody and made it seem it more likely that everybody would pull through.  That being said, people who were quarantined didn’t want to come forward with false hope until they cycled through all their symptoms. The backlash we saw in these Facebook groups talking about the party was a little scary, and off-putting. There is an undercurrent of fear and panic but it’s up to us to reassure one another.   It’s feels like we’re in an old-fashioned era for which you are not prepared …