AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
It's been five years since COVID-19 became a global pandemic. Our lives changed drastically almost overnight.
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CINDY: You try to wear gloves, I guess, and wash your hands. If you've got hand sanitizers, you can use that.
JENNY: When I first walked into campus after my spring break, it was - honestly, it felt like a different city. It's very empty.
DANIEL: It's very hurting, not able to support my family due to me losing my job and losing everything. We've sold and pawned everything that we've had, and we don't have anything now.
RASCOE: Back in 2020, as social distancing became a strange new practice, with schools and many workplaces closed, and the future so uncertain as the coronavirus spread, we asked people around the country to share their experiences with us. Today, we're checking back in with a few folks about how that time has stayed with them.
TEADRIS POPE: It's like a period of time that came and went, and there were so many lives lost.
RASCOE: Teadris Pope's mother was among the first people to die in the U.S. from COVID. She was a nurse who worked at a hospital in Boston.
POPE: The loss of a parent is never going to be anything that you will forget. We weren't able to be with her for her last breath. The physical things that brings you closure, we were denied.
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POPE: Holidays have always been hard. They continue to be hard. She's definitely missed. Especially when it's her siblings that come together, you always get a chance to see, you know, who is not there. You know, she missed the birth of her last grandchild. She wasn't here for that. The master's degrees that were earned by two of her grandchildren it - she made it a point to be at every graduation, that she met. You know what I mean? she had a couple of grandchildren that are coming out of high school, and she won't be here for those. So we think about that and how she's going to miss all of these moments that were really important to her, especially when it was surrounded by education.
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RASCOE: To honor her mom, Teadris Pope's family started a scholarship in her name, and they hope to gather again this year to celebrate her life.
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JAMES AINSWORTH: There's an element of grace that came with the pandemic, and it was quite liberating, for me, in many ways.
RASCOE: James Ainsworth is a journalist and copywriter. He uses a wheelchair because he's paralyzed from the waist down. Before the pandemic, getting around his hometown of Denver had been challenging and, at times, isolating. But as so many activities moved online in 2020, he could suddenly participate in church and classes and in community events with ease. James Ainsworth is happy to report it stayed that way.
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AINSWORTH: People forget that there are a lot of people who have limited mobility, limited options for travel, entertainment, etc. And so I think having the option to participate in a community online has really meant the world to me. It's opened doors, and it's deepened the relationships with people and the groups that I have as a part of my life.
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SHEHROSE CHARANIA: My name is Shehrose Charania. I am 25 years old.
RASCOE: And she started March of 2020 as a junior at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But when campus closed, she lost her student job and ended up back in Chicago, living in a small three-bedroom house with her parents and sister.
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CHARANIA: I didn't even have space to really sit down and do work. I used to sit, like, in a corner. My parents needed to make a living, working in places like the airport and hotels, where there's a lot of people. So they were more susceptible to getting COVID than I was, and I always felt guilty for that.
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CHARANIA: I can't help but say, but I did almost lose my parents. They actually ended up getting COVID. Both of my parents actually are diabetic. There were a lot of feelings of being frustrated, being upset, you know, I think even borderline being angry, which - what I was dealing with, with having sick parents and then also trying to finish school. But I realized that there is a disparity that exists for folks who have to live this life of catching, maybe disportionately (ph), illnesses or diseases. It was a very scary but eye-opening experience and really paved the path for me of, like, who I want to be in the future.
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CHARANIA: I actually work at Kaiser Permanente, making the experiences of our members and our patients much better. And my story of growing up as a first-generation college student - it's been a very - a full-circle moment, where I am overseeing teams working on different projects and working with senior leadership team around making care better.
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CHARANIA: The pandemic, you know, has taught me that it's so important to have, you know, a community and family and really valuing those relationships. You know, my parents are still working those same jobs. I eventually want to be in a stage financially, in my career, where I can support my parents to the fullest, where they can retire. I know I will eventually get there. It's just some time until that point.
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RASCOE: That's Shehrose Charania. We also heard from James Ainsworth and Teadris Pope reflecting on life five years after the start of the pandemic.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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