Confinement diary. For pandemic prevention

[Annie]

Oh, Anicette, it sounds like you are having a hard time right now. The lack of eggs must make you so sad for your daughter!

Were you able to get glasses?

I will pray for you and your family, I wish I could do something else as well. It is Mother’s Day here in the US: Happy Mother’s Day to you: i know you are doing so well with your little ones!

 

[Anicette]

Thanks you Annie!
This year Mother’s day is June 7 for us.

I have ben able to get glasses, I had not a lot of choices in design. Need to be more carefull the next time, as it is expensive!

My husband bought a cake a a few presents for her. I wraped them in newspaper for the surprise. She was happy!

 

[Annie]

How wonderful! I know that when our children are happy, it makes us happy, so I am happy for your family that your husband was able to find the “necessities” for her birthday.

And I am glad you were able to find glasses, even if they are not beautiful.

I hope your opening up goes smoothly!

 

[Anicette]

Saturday 16 May,

As we can mooved up to 100 km to bird fly, a grandfather come to visit us to help my husband around the garden. First time since a lon time we received or see someone, apart speaking to ours neighboors from our garden.

It was the first time since many months my husband and me go out together, and without the children to a small groceries. We were masks and we noticed that almost everybody were wearing them! What an evolution!
In shops we are often ask to use their deinfectant for hands and masks are a mandate for some shops. The traffic and number of customers in a shop is reguled.

Monday 18 May,

Step two of school starting again. My husband will have his students tomorrow.

He goes to work with a cloth mask and then after wear a surgical mask provide by his work. It is an hospital settings, so they need to be carefull.

These week we complete our cloth mask’s stock. Apart from the one mask made by our neighboor, I bought three in a pharmacy, the town provide us four and a friend offer us to create two for my husband and will send them by post mail.

I was able to take an appointment to the toy library. All is done for that we don’t met another person apart the animator. Due to the circunstances I was able to take more games for my daughter than usual. What a change. No luck, we already lost a small acorn from a game! Gr!

Thursday 20 May,
We had planned to visit my family. 103 kms at bird fly! Yes, I now it is illegal…
But no luck (or more luck as it prevent us from doing an illegal thing?), we would not be able to see them. My father is confined at home since he met a friend who is a Coronavirus’s suspect!
all the people who had been in contact with this patient and all the people who had contact with someone who had contact with this patient should be confined. Many people…they are waiting for the testing that would said if she is infected or not to maybe come back to more normal life.

I hope that this person doesn’t catch the virus as she is not in a good health. But if it is not the virus, what illness is it, something worst?

I naively thought that the virus was not on the radars anymore… I was wrong.

We planned to see a family of friends some 80km away instead. We met them for the Baptism of our last one, in december, but I regularly talk on the phone with my friend who is a faithful one, including in the horrible emotional time since my breakup.

Ascension Day,

We watched (to be fair, I don’t listen a lot) the ascension mass on the public TV. It was filmed from a confined Switzerland church. They speak mostly in Italian, and the TV translated on voice off.

My son plunged again with his food problem. I became desesperate. I resigned myslef to call for help, but because of the virus, this structure is closed. Never mind, I will take another appointment with the hospital pediatrician and nutritionist but I know it would not solve his food strike. I am very fortunate that I breastfeed him.

 

[Anicette]

Sunday 24 may,

Yesterday I learned a big new on the radio around 12 am. The governement decided to ALLOW TO START AGAIN MASSES with a limited number of faithfull!
It will started the next day! What a shock, what a rush!

But due to me going of bed too late, and the fact that the numbers of people are limited, we stayed at home, watching the confined mass from Belgium.

Monday 25 may,

First time we made a walk outside the house with the children since the confinement!

Finally the friend had not the coronavirus, so my family and all the chain is deconfined. We will able to met them for Pentecost weekend.

This weekend we visited some friends for the first time since all the sanitary crisis. We made a couple’s walk while our friends took care of our children. It was a bright day and we were surprised to see so many people who are walking or riding in the side of the river. We were the only to wear a mask, but fortunately, apart from the beginning we don’t cross too many people.

The newspaper were showing photographies of a beach full of people lying or sitting on the sand on their towel…despite the prohibition. Many beaches are opening again, but the mandate is to moove, not to squat.

 

[Annie]

How wonderful that things are opening up for you! I hope you can get to Mass soon! And prayers for your son’s food strike!

 

[Anicette]

thanks you Annie!

I want to go for Pentecost mass!

My son currently eat a little more but it is always difficult, yet he is healthy boy.

 

[Anicette]

Saturday 30 May,

“uh, the baby is taking my hand. It breaks the rules the social distancing. What do I do?” ask the grandmother.
But as we are all spending the weekend in the same home, it is unavoidable that we will have contacts with small children. The first time we see them since the confinement.

We have took new habits. we don’t kiss or shake hands of our family and friends when we met them. Honestly it is a relieve for me, as I don’t like these sorts of physical contacts.

We wear masks when we go outside. We limit the mooves and the children spent almost all the time inside the house. It is not as before. But we get used to it well.

We have now a little collection of cloth masks. I have to establised a new routine of laudry. The masks should be washed at 60°, and it is not the usual temperature of my laudries. I use it for cloth nappies (but I would not mix them for obvious reasons!) and sheets and towels. But I don’t make them often (maybe one every two weeks?). So, I should make more towels laundries!

I am not good at planning domestics tasks. Hope we will not have a shortage as when I have eregular shortage with nappies. If it happened we will need to can more disposable masks! (and it is not good for the planet!)

How do you do with your laundries if you use cloth masks?

 

[Anicette]

Sunday 31 May, Pentecost day,

As we are in another city, I have difficulties to find the mass schedule. Nothing on the newspaper, nothing on the Catholic websites…
So at 10pm, this saturday i phone my aunt, (we are one the same parish, but not the same church) to know.

Good idea, because the parishioners had received emails with informations.

The parish is an urban one with three churches (I known them as 3 independant parishes before!) and three priests. Because of the deconfinement, it is the first mass since months.
They organise two masses (instead of 1, to limit contacts).
My aunt will go to her ordinary church, next door. We will go to the third church, as the church next to us had stopped sunday masses since the deconfinement.

We go by feet. It is strange because this church is very close to my parent’s home, and i have never assisted to one mass in it!
I would have prefer to have gone to a church more far away, but with a young child it is too long to walk. And because of the crisis we will avoid public transportation as I was used to take them for mass.

We will need to be happy to what we have. And I am not in a mood to be difficult today!

It is very strange because I discover again the proximity of the churches!! Me who have spent almost decade in this city as a “parish homelesness” after i leave the church next door.
I had the choose between 5 churches (not to mention 7) that i can go by feet every sunday for mass. I didn’t know what to choose and always get up too late, so I was in a spiritual misery for years…I had only the end of the mass, or sometimes I gone to the mass of sunday evening…

We let the baby to the grandparents- because a baby can’t respect the social distancing.
We put our mandate masks. The church has hydroalkolic at the entry.
There is place for 140-150 people, but we were very few for Pentecost. Maybe 70?
There is no baby or small children of course. And not very very old people or disabled people. But the majority of faithfull are retired people of course. Our 4 year old child is the youngest. After the youngest are teenagers.

the mass is good, but I don’t listen a lot…

I find ironic that the commion is given to the faithfull despite that we are wearing masks. We shouldn’t touch the mask if we follow the protocols!

the quest is taking place at the end…

At the end, the priest says that the money that is lacking because of the 13 missed sunday masses is more than 6,000€ for the parish and asks for our generous contribution.

To conclude a good day!

 

[Annie]

had the choose between 5 churches (not to mention 7) that i can go by feet every sunday for mass

I want to live somewhere where I have that choice

It is so interesting to read how you are doing over there in France! I am happy for you that you were able to visit your family!

 

[Anicette]

thanks you Annie for your encouragement!

Yes, I wish that I had this choice too, as I have only two choices of sunday mass now. One we can go by feet in the village, the other we need to take the car for going in the center of the city. There would be a third choice, but never tested because it is FSPX, so it is not very regular! But it is not as bad for a rural area!
When we lived in less populated areas that are historically more practing Catholics we have less no no choice but the counterpart is that there is more community dimension than what I had know when I lived in a bigger city, when I was a teen attached to a parish or an homeless catholic.
The advantage to live in a big city is to have more religious choice, including for week mass, more young people to met and more propositions.

What we are lacking here is more priest presence and things organized for families.
Yet for my birth city, I had observed in 20 years a big reduction in the proportion of the fullness of the church every sunday. There is also now a big proportion of migrants among the faithfull. Parishes that mergeded. When the parish made the choice to make the priests turn for one church to another every sunday, the faithfull don’t even know their priests.

 

[Anicette]

Sunday 7 June, Holy trinity day.

And happy mother’s day!

Prayers for the current social agitations of the last day in America and for the crisis.

As planned we separate ourself for the mass.
Husband took his turn with our daughter. I stay home with the mass TV with the baby.
Because he would run in the church it would not be respectfull of social distanciation.

They gone to our next door church…

I watched the mass, a parish mass… but with the same dominican priest as in the confined mass previousely!! Ordinary the use for the TV is to run to a different church every sunday!

The homily “what is the holy Trinity? The Love of God”…
(hummm… not a very theological response, but need to feel the Love of God before digging more!..)

"What happened in the real mass?

_ It was boring. I don’t listen anything.

_ Is there was a choir?

_ I don’t know…

_ How many were you?

_ There was nobody.

_ How many approximately? Is there was children?

_ the very maximum 30-35 people. The youngest was our daughter. the second youngest was me! (age 40)…

So the third youngest should be the priest (age 48) and the rest old people.

So we go from around 100 people before to no children in the usual mass to a few for the mass of the families (1 every month) to after 14 weeks to… this?
Add to that the lost of money of 13 quests and the lack of money due to no baptisms and marriages.

Well, we think our parish is dying. I don’t think there would be a more normal situation until after September. But the confinement would probabaly kill her sooner than excepted.

That’s possible that the virus kill almost all catholicism in many part of France.

I have no hostility toward old people who prefer to stay at home because they are vulnerable. It is understandable. But if we remooved them from the churches, we see the naked true. What would be our future in two decades. a DYING CHURCH.

In the 60’s and 70’s some historians of religious fact were predicted that the Church would become empty with the priest alone because faithfull would leave quietly because of disagreement with HV and so more…It would not happened. the faithfull leave or does not transmit their faith to their children but in parallel, and more quickly the vocations plunged. But now it seems that we have a portrait of this predication. Would the situation will go back to normal a day?

Is your mass deconfined? And what happened? Are you still waiting? And how?

@Annie, @Irishmom2, @AdamP88 , @Swiftdove, @Convert3, @Swiftdove?

 

[Annie]

But now it seems that we have a portrait of this predication.

I have had this fear for France, once the Daughter of the Church, for a long time. It just seems like the main culture is so against religion.

But it is happening all over Europe (I blame the French for that because they always portray themselves as being the best and most enlightened ), even in Spain, which held on for longer…

It is so sad and I wonder if there is anything that can be done about it. I feel that modernism, like Islam, has a kind of vaccination against the Christian faith, making it very hard for people to convert or return.

It must be very sad for you, since it is your country and you are living there and seeing it!

 

[Anicette]

Well, maybe it is because we are in a small parish…

I read in the newspaper that our former urban parish had 270 people at mass the same day (against 400 ordinary).

Yet i am not sure that all the things will get back to the normal old level…

 

[Anicette]

Sunday, June 14, 2020.

Mass
We were more people at mass than the last week. Maybe it comes back slowly to normal? Yet, we were the only (with the priest) to be under 70 years old…
My daughter color her pictures quitely, and my baby in the scarf in my back was like an image. I had said them to be quiet and don’t moove because of the sanitary rules, and they did it!

Presidential speech:

We are in phase 3 of deconfinement (except ultramarine territories Mayotte and Guyane where the virus is more active).

The school attendance will be a mandate for all children since June 22. (yehhh… a week before the end of school year… )
We speak with my husband and we found that both political - to put the parents on work again, and stupid (for one week…°

After having spent 500 billion of Euros in helping people and business to survive during the crisis - what other State have done that? Which prooves that our social model works-
The governement wants the economy to start again quickly. So we will have to work more to produce more as many business will closed because of the crisis…

We still have to do social distancing, but we will be able to travel inside the European Union and outside Europe for this summer.

We can see our older people in nursing home and go to the restaurant and go to movie theater soon.

 

[Anicette]

I have had this fear for France, once the Daughter of the Church, for a long time. It just seems like the main culture is so against religion.

Last poll… sadly the catholics are now around 30% of the population… a fall, we were 50% 10 years ago…
The main religion now is “atheism” with 58%…
We are dying…

But it is happening all over Europe (I blame the French for that because they always portray themselves as being the best and most enlightened )

We have invented the Lighten philosophers who have enlight all the western civilization from a new light… LOL…

, even in Spain, which held on for longer…

Spain is no longer an exemple. They invented more than a decade ago Parent A and parent B on birth certificate instead of mother and father…

It is so sad and I wonder if there is anything that can be done about it. I feel that modernism, like Islam, has a kind of vaccination against the Christian faith, making it very hard for people to convert or return.

We very rarely go back from un believing to believe. But we often go from a Catholic family to nowhere…
A few muslins convert to Catholicism every year in France, but it is very hard because we cannot left Islam.
More people of catholic culture convert to Islam. The SIL of my Godmother’s child, for eg.

And in the extreme cases many youngs people who have gone to Syria to war were converts from catholicism.

I have nothing against Islam being an element of life in France. I am even against laws that forbid veil or muslins dress in public places, administration and schools. But when the population around you is either without religion or of muslin culture… Well I have a problem. I live in an area with a high proportion of muslins, and didn’t think of theses questions before coming here.

 

[Annie]

I did read today that France will open entirely, and thought of you! How are you with that?

 

[Anicette]

Thanks you.

Presently for us, it changes nothing. I don’t plan to go to the cinema or on vocations aboard. The last time we go to the restaurant was on Valentine’s day, and we don’t plan to go soon.
Our child is homeschooled so he don’t need to go to school again in a few days.

But on daily life we progress.

last week we were able to met the other homeschooled family after so many months. We spent a part of the day together, go to the market…

Today we go to the toy library. There was a progress because we now can come without taking an appointment before, but we still can be only one family at a time, and the children cannot play, we can just borrowed the games. It was hard on my child who try to play with the little kitchen before being stopped!

We go to a park after. It was still closed last week. We didn’t gone for three months! We also made a walk in the town and even have bried interaction with people around…It is a change but i still wore my mask!

Last sunday, we see the restaurant next to our home opened with customers inside.

I think it will mostly be benefical for the economy because it is hard for the shops that were closed to not shut down if they are independant businesses despite the governemental aids.

The governement has warned us, we will known a recession, many will loose their work, and the people who will keep them will need to work more…

In our city one clothes shop for children didn’t opened again after the deconfinement. It is definitely closed… for eg.

 

[Anicette]

Sunday 29 June

Sacramental life start again.
The sunday of the last week, there was a baptism after the mass in the church were we were.
I was surprised to see so many faithfull, including some youngs people (usually men) of high school or student age who came alone. So different from our rural parish…

A family of friends baptised her baby too.

Our friend will eventually be able to marry in July, but will need to make a “smaller marriage than planned”;

Our diocese ordained 2 priests today! A RARE event that will not happened in the next few years! Due to the coronavirus, people who want to go should have to register themselves before. I try, but too late. I imagine that only a quarter of the cathedral could be filled with people.

This sunday I was in mass with the two children, alone. Usually I took only one child, and everything was fine… But not this time. The baby was not quite as last week, so we walk, fight aginst me to free himself, remoove my mask many time and put it on the floor aand bring down his books! As a consequence, some devoted people pick up the books, touch the baby to stop him etc! Were are the barriers gests??
I am wrong to go with mass with two children or with a baby?

Normally this urban parish has a place where they care for toddlers, but it was closed due to the circunstances. Anyway we never have give our children to someone else, including a parish.

This week I go with some others catholics mothers of our area and their young children to a local pilgrimmage sanctuary for an informal meeting for the children to play together and to pray. What a relieve for an homeschooling family! We need more meetings like that, but unfortunately, the mother who organized it planned it usually one time a year!

Another thing that does not come back to normal: ELECTIONS.

I have already written about the municipal elections that happened just before the confinement… And that were criticized. It was the first run. Now the second happened 3 months after because of the crisis! The abstension is very very high. More than 55% in the first run (logical, people were afraid…) and skyrocked to 59% this sunday! I heard on the radio that it is the first time in the history of our 5th Republic, so since 1958! We have a democratic problem, and it is not due only to the sanitary conditions!

 

[Anicette]

Wednesday 8 July,

Because of an illness we stay all at home for the last mass with the routine installed with my oldest children. I have buy a child’s missel that she can color. More practical that to print sheets of papers every sunday.
It’s three weeks that my husband don’t go to mass, it became to annoye me.

I know thanks to this forum that in California, we could not sing anymore in Churches, because of a new law. Us, we sing in churches. I have never think before it can be a problem…

I have notice that people are more laxed with the sanitary rules. Today, my girl will go to have an haircut, I warned the hairdresser that she is ill, but she will take her!
And the last time I made the groceries, the cashier had no problem to start to pass the products of the next customer, even before I finished to take all my groceries! So my hand became in unwanted contact with the cola bottle of the next person… It is always like that, they don’t wait or respect the customer, but in epidemic period they should be very careful! HUMM… no more!