Creativity Rules

My coronavirus story began in early March. At that time, one of our families who has a child that comes to our shop for training had a member that was visiting Italy. When they returned, I asked the family to take a two-week break from bringing their child into the shop. From then on I started making all kinds of rules about keeping everyone safe. By March 14 or so, I decided to close the shop and bunker up at home. Also, around the same time I started to have a big problem with my knee and was in a great deal of pain so I couldn’t really move around anyway. We all stayed home for a month. My son, who has severe autism, stayed in bed all day and I decided he was probably in a depression. So as I was starting to feel better, I realized I had to get him out and we went back to the shop to start working and making Chocolate. Eventually we decided we had to figure out a way to keep our revenues up and I invited some of our employees to also come back into the shop but stagger their schedule so nobody was there at the same time. We eventually put the word out to the community and we had a very successful Mother’s Day truffle event. This is let us to develop new ways of marketing including curbside pick up and eventually we’re going to be doing delivery. And we have really boosted up our mail order business. My family is ultra safe. We do not go to any stores or any restaurants of any type. We eat at home every day and we wear masks when we go out but honestly other than our house and my shop, we don’t go anywhere. Everything we need we get delivered. And my husband washes it off before comes in the house. We are both in our 60s and don’t want to take any chances. Additionally, my son with the autism is very behavior really difficult and this change in routine has caused him a lot of problems. He’s been changing up his medications with the psychiatrist but the whole situation has just exacerbated the problems. Basically our whole family revolves around his needs and we have to be very careful that we are able to meet them no matter what. For instance, he only eat certain foods and snacks and I have to make sure I have them on hand. Additionally, no matter what, we have to stick with his routine. But I will say having him going back to work at our shop has made a big difference. I think this time is about creativity, consideration, and understanding of others needs as well. I hope everyone can come together and work on creating a safer and healthier world.

About This Story

  • Project: COVID-19
  • Date submitted: 2020-05-11 00:00:00
  • Emotional tone: Strongly positive
  • Who should know about this? Everyone
  • Is the story health-related? NA

About the Storyteller

  • Community: Jupiter
  • Age: Over 61
  • Gender: Female
  • Concerns: Being around too many people, Health of my friends and/or family, Health of the community, Safety of my neighborhood, and Safety of those who can't care for themselves

How the Storyteller Interpreted Their Story

Note: Responses which fell closer to the middle (between two or three options) are shown as two dashes.
  • My story shows we need to: --
  • Who my story is about: --
  • Why people acted the way they did: --
  • How people were treated: --
  • In my story, there are: Solutions to problems
  • In my story: I am stressed out
  • My story shows: --
  • My story teaches us that: The community is resilient
  • My story teaches us that: --
  • My story is about: Hope