As we near the end of 2020, I find myself increasingly reflecting on what kind of year its been.
Oh, and what a year it HAS been!
For me, 2020 was meant to follow an uncertain 2019; a year of pain, loss, change and SO much healing. Although I may not have reflected on 2019 in the same way at the time, it was a year of tremendous personal growth and a true testament to my strength, courage and resiliency.
2020 was supposed to be different. It was to be the year that I would be able to apply that courage and strength to even more personal and professional growth. I knew, with absolute certainty, that it would be a year of change and I welcomed the thought of that with open arms and an open heart. Still, nothing could have prepared me for what was to come.
Nothing.
Professionally, it started off with a number of challenges. Even before COVID reared its ugly head locally, we were busy preparing for (while actively trying to prevent) a massive labour disruption. This not only meant an increased workload and extra hours, but also a vacation freeze that meant you could not schedule a single day off, even if you wanted to. Even if you needed to. For me, that feeling of being “trapped” without possibility of an escape, is one of the feelings I struggle with most. By January, I already felt like I needed a vacation. By February, I was already tired as we added the additional layer of preparation for a worldwide pandemic. By March, I was already feeling the strain.
Personally, there were some concerns in the background that also weighed heavily on my mind. Working in disaster response, I knew firsthand what a pandemic of this magnitude could signal, if we were not able to contain it. I knew what a potential lock-down could look like and I knew the impact it could have on so many, including those closest to me. With my aging parents, both with underlying medical issues, I feared for their safety. With my 3 children in school, I feared what this would mean if they weren’t able to access it. With my own level of stress coming into it, I feared the impact this would have on my immune system. With, with, with, with, the list of concerns grew with every day of uncertainty and confusion.
In March, as I was getting ready to leave work and go home, I received a call asking me to go open a relief site at a community centre. Within 30 mins, I was onsite, preparing to open our doors for clients in 4 hours. As the redeployed staff came on shift, I realized that we would be operating with a team that had no experience working with our complex client population and in our unpredictable environments. I was the only one in that room who had any idea of what we could expect.
But where that moment would lead me, is not something even I could have expected. That decision to say yes and go open those doors that afternoon in March, changed the entire trajectory of my 2020 and my entire life as I knew it.
The next few months reached a level of stress that I have yet to find words for. For now, I will sum up that time simply with the following:
Work was long and hectic.
With limited staffing, I was working 12-16 hour days.
I wasn’t sleeping well.
I wasn’t eating well.
I wasn’t able to find energy to exercise.
Because of my work hours, I was barely able to see my children physically.
Seeing my parents was a no-no.
The house was empty.
I had to balance the anxieties of my loved ones with managing my own limited self care.
Time stood still.
I was so fucking exhausted from all of it.
In March, I was scheduled to have a tubal ligation. At 39, I had long ago decided that 3 children were plenty for me. With two previous miscarriages in my younger days and a more recent surprise pregnancy that ended with a very difficult decision to terminate it, I was very much looking forward to having the surgery completed. 4 days before the surgery, I received a call from my OB/GYN to say that they had cancelled elective surgeries, and mine was on the chopping block. They were currently rescheduling for June, uncertain of the direction COVID would take. I resigned myself to 3 more months and hoped for a June date.
In June, and at the height of a lot of chaos, my period did not come as expected. I told my partner that I would take a pregnancy test just to see, fully expecting it to come back negative. He offered to come with me to purchase the test and to be there when I took it, but I wasn’t entirely sure how I would react if that test come out positive. I offered to drive him to work instead and stopped at the pharmacy on the way back home.
When the two little pink lines appeared, I realized what that meant:
I was pregnant.
Pregnant at 39, due to give birth at 40.
Pregnant for the 7th time in my life.
Pregnant in a relationship that was wonderful, but still new.
Pregnant during one of the most stressful periods of my life.
Pregnant during a deadly and seemingly never-ending worldwide pandemic.
Pregnant after knowing I didn’t want to and taking actions towards never wanting to be pregnant again.
As I processed all those things slowly, and then all at once, I felt a calm wash over me. A reassurance that this was not something to fear. An understanding of how every moment of this year, led me to this exact place in time. A realization that the universe had bigger plans that I was not aware of. An acceptance of the strength, courage and resiliency I carried with me always and how this would require all of those things.
I surprised myself by embracing everything that came with those two lines; the good, the bad, and all things in between. This wasn’t something that I had planned but neither were most of the best things in my life. By the end of the day, I was having another baby and I was OK with it.
This acceptance did not come with the absence of fear, I was scared shitless!
Whatever was left of my days after work and responsibilities, was spent running through logistics. I made list upon list upon list of all the things I had to do, be, and prepare. This wasn’t going to be easy but I was determined to make it work.
This pregnancy meant there would have to be immediate changes at work, changes with our current living arrangement, changes in a fairly new relationship that maybe neither of us was entirely prepared for. This unplanned pregnancy pressed the fast-forward button on our lives, at a time when everything felt like it was paused. Everything seemed to be speeding forward against a frozen backdrop. It was a lot. At times, it was too much.
It was too much.
My parents, unhappy with the pregnancy, chose to stop speaking to me. My oldest son, though mostly accepting, was having difficultly navigating a whole flood of his own emotions. While COVID worked to make things difficult, this pregnancy was making things feel impossible. It was high risk. I felt very sick for the entire duration of it. It was lonely at times. I wanted to fall apart; I was so tired of having to be strong for everyone else.
But I had bigger things to worry about now.
The pregnancy took a toll on me, from the beginning to the horrific end. At the start of my second trimester, and after finally announcing it publicly, I suffered a life-threatening miscarriage. COVID meant that I was to experience it alone in the hospital, from the first visit to the ER, to every visit that followed. I was alone.
It would take a full month for my body to clear the pregnancy; it would take much longer for me to feel whole again.
After birthing 3 amazing boys, I found out that this baby was a girl. I called her “Anya”. Naming her, even if it was just for me, helped me to process everything that was to follow. Anya is a name that means different things in different languages; it means grace, inexhaustible, resurrection. All the things I knew I would need to move forward.
The next few months reached a level of stress that I have yet to find words for. For now, I will sum up that time simply with the following:
Days were long and hectic.
I wasn’t sleeping well.
I wasn’t eating.
I wasn’t able to find energy to exercise.
I was barely able to see my children physically.
The house was empty.
I had to balance the anxieties of my loved ones with managing my own limited self care.
Time stood still.
I was so fucking exhausted from all of it.
There was so much to heal in the time that followed. So much to reflect on. So much to process. So so so so much of everything. In the weeks that followed, I felt like I lost so much of the Sandra I knew. I couldn’t open my mouth to speak without crying. I wanted to be alone and I didn’t want to be alone. I was in so much fucking pain, I didn’t even know what to do with it.
I took a month off work to focus on recovery and made appointments for counselling. I slept when I wanted to sleep, I cried when I wanted to cry, I made space to feel whatever the hell I wanted to feel when I had to feel it. It was all so hard and it almost broke me.
But then time started to pass, like the pause button had finally been lifted. As it passed, I began to see more and more flickers of me in the daily moments. I began to laugh more and cry a bit less. I started to remember who I was before 2020 knocked me on my ass; who I wanted to return to being. For me, for my kids, for my family, for my friends; I NEEDED to return to that woman I knew and loved. So, with one foot in front of the other, I celebrated every step with the true victory I knew it to be.
Fast forward to December.
After a confirmed exposure to someone who tested positive for COVID, I was put on mandatory isolation at home for 2 weeks. My partner had been at my place for the days leading up to my getting the call from Public Health. The day I found out I was going to be staying home, I reached out to my chosen family to cancel plans and my phone rang immediately.
My partner looked at me as my phone was ringing and joked “Here comes your social network” and we both laughed as the offers of love came pouring in…
“Are you ok, what can I do for you?”
“I’ll make you some soup and drop it off…”
“Don’t worry about the kids, they will stay here with me…”
I had initially thought my “social network” was a really funny way to refer to my friends and family but as the days passed, I reflected more and more on that. This really WAS my social network; a phenomenal network of love that I built around myself.
Looking back at 2020, you would think the feelings of loneliness meant that I was alone, but I wasn’t.
Through it all, every single wonderful and shitty moment, there was always one common constant; my social network. My tribe. My people. My heart.
And maybe, just maybe, that is what 2020 was meant to be about all along:
Stripping away all the distractions and noise we surround ourselves with.
Eliminating the material aspect and luxuries of life.
Having and holding space for difficult conversations to enhance your growth – in yourself, in your relationships, in your work.
Finding and working through the discomfort of the silence.
To discover, strengthen and build your own social networks.
It is in years like 2020 that lessons are learned, questions are answered, and real gratitude is felt. It is in those moments when you are bare, broken, and ugly crying, with nothing to offer in return, that you are reminded of the simplicity of human connection.
As we near the end of 2020, I find myself increasingly reflecting on what kind of year its been.
And wow, am I ever blessed.
I don’t know what kind of surprises 2021 will hold for me but what I do know, is that my social network will be there by my side.
Just as I will be there for them.