Happy Pandemic Birthday
Lynley Jones
Yesterday was my son’s 16th birthday. Sweet sixteen.
I would like to tell you that I had some sort of Pinterest-worthy approach to celebrating while bunkering. Like, if I had planned ahead. Knowing this would be the situation, if I had planned to bake an amazing cake, for example. If we had ordered and/or shopped for all his gifts way in advance, and we just had to sneak around to wrap them. We would have them all on the kitchen table when he came down in the morning. Surprise!
I would make his favorite breakfast for him. Then we’d plan something special (a picnic?) for lunch. We’d bring a frisbee or a baseball and our mitts, and we’d have lunch in the park, or go for a long hike. With no school to go to, we’d spend a special day together as a family. And at the end of the day, we’d all agree that even under these circumstances, it was the best birthday ever. In fact, maybe even more special.
But here’s what actually happened:
A week ago, when the world was still fairly normal, it was his younger sister’s birthday. My son and I had conspired on gifts for her, and spent the day before her birthday shopping together. He’d had just a bit of a cold so I’d kept him home from school, out of an abundance of caution, just to do the right thing (he was fine). So he and I ordered a couple things on Amazon (delivered next day!), bought her a vinyl record, got her a gift card from just the right place, and he picked out a baking cookbook she would love. It was fun.
In the normal course of things, this is how we handle birthdays. They are a week apart, and once we get my daughter’s taken care of, we turn our attention to my son’s.
But this year, in that week, the entire world changed.
Schools were closed. Then my husband’s office was closed. When I finally got out to shop for our family pantry, grocery store shelves were bare. I got what I could, which fortunately turned out to be just about everything we needed. I kept the groceries in the car overnight in 30-degree weather, so I could spend the following morning cleaning the fridge, freezer and basement freezer and making space for everything.
I began making decisions about my business. I decided I had to close our pop-up shop. I made some other decisions, all of which need some sort of website/tech solution in order to work. All of which has to be figured out. And staff is hard to come by, since they’re all at home with their kids, because schools are closed.
As my son’s birthday drew near, I realized it would be a bad idea to shop for him in stores, and then after that the malls were closed anyway. I went online, and found that now there was no next-day or two-day delivery from Amazon, at least not on anything he wanted. And suddenly, Apple products were in short supply. No one in China to make them.
So…. No presents. Literally. I had nothing.
Finally I grabbed my son by the shoulders and looked him squarely in the eyes. “You know I always tell you the truth,” I said. “Listen to me. Your birthday is tomorrow and this is a time of crisis. I’m so sorry to tell you this but the truth is we don’t have any presents for you.”
I explained. We had lots of ideas. We tried this, we tried that. And sure, we could make him a homemade coupon book or something. But the truth is that there would be nothing for him to unwrap on his birthday. “You’ll always remember that your 16th birthday was in the time of the pandemic. And that’s the year you got no presents.”
He looked for a few seconds like maybe he wanted to cry.
But to his credit, he didn’t complain.
And then the next day here’s what happened:
In the morning, he woke up with a smile. For breakfast, he wanted crepes, a sandwich and a smoothie from a local restaurant, so we ordered for pickup. He watched a movie while he ate by himself, as his dad and I each worked and his sister did schoolwork. Then without a word he did his own schoolwork and his assigned workout for his high school lacrosse team.
Later, his dad took him to a local vintage shop where he picked out a shirt. They apparently also stopped at a grocery store for some things that hadn’t met the bar for my pantry stock shopping (sodas, chips, etc.)
His Uncle Eric surprised him with the one gift he got to unwrap: my mom’s old ukulele, fixed up for him to play, along with some new sheet music. He took it right up to his room and began to play.
Later, for dinner, takeout tacos. For dessert, an Oreo ice cream roll they had picked up at the store. And we watched a movie - he chose the one his sister wanted to watch.
At the end of the day, he said it was a really good day.
And although his 16th birthday was not my best mom moment, I’m pretty darn proud of my son.
Birthday breakfast from Bonjour Montclair on the TV tray: Ham/red pepper/mozzarella sandwich, salad, strawberry crepes, and a mango smoothie.
Pandemic birthday breakfast
My son with his takeout birthday breakfast, ready to watch a movie. Happy birthday, Carl-Eric.
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