Counting the seconds, minutes, hours, days since the lockdown was declared. It made the world stop: work, school, public transport. But the day after it was announced, everything was in chaos. Everyone seemed to be either in the wet market or at the supermarket. Yet there was no traffic. No public transport was in sight. Everyone was in panic mode. We saw more chaos in the week that followed.

That was in March 2020, almost nine months ago.

We were never prepared.

My family is composed of my senior citizen husband, our three children and our three-year-old grandson. Our eldest daughter has a stable job, and that’s a good thing. Our second-born daughter has just given birth to a baby girl. The youngest one, our son, is a business-process-outsourcing (BPO) agent on floating status.

As a mother, nurturing is next to nature. In this time of pandemic, you give an extra nurturing to your brood. You go an extra mile to ensure the safety of your family. As much as we can and as our budgets allow, choose what to feed them, ensure their daily dose of vitamins to take, remind ourselves to bring our facemasks, alcohol and face shields at all times, and to take a bath after each trip outside the house.

Thinking how so many other families may not have the choice how to go about all the health protocols, much less put food on the table with their meager and uncertain incomes, is troubling.

The virus is still around us, waiting to infect anyone. Here’s fervently praying and hoping that everyone will be safe and healthy.