During the Pandemic, people lived through the catastrophe day to day down to the smallest mundane but necessary rituals. They did their laundry, paid their bills, brushed their teeth, walked their dogs, washed their dishes, while all around them people were getting sick and their communities appeared to be unraveling and dying. This is what the big events of history look like close up: People went on living their lives as best they could because they had to, while the world shifted, and everything they took for granted was no longer reliable.

    As the hospitals shut down and alternate care sites became overwhelmed, the sick were increasingly sent back home to be cared for by their families. As basic services crumbled, the sense of pressure and isolation intensified for the average Canadian. People stayed glued to their television sets, absorbing the scale of the tragedy until they could take no more. Perhaps it is because of this atmosphere, not in spite of it, that many people reached out to each other so readily to help. Yes, we were on our own for the duration, but we were all in the same boat. Government could not help us with every need, but we could help each other.

    The world didn’t end, although to many it felt like it.

    When the epidemic in Canada was declared over, Canadians seemed to wake up from a long nightmare, unsure of how to reclaim normalcy in a world that had permanently changed. Despite lingering unease about the future among the invisible enemy of disease, most people gained a renewed sense of unity and purpose. We all came through this together, they said. We survived. The worst is over and it’s time to rebuild.(65)

The Coming Pandemic

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©2008 Future Shock Books, a division of ZING Communications, Inc.