After the Wisconsin disaster, we decided on a few core requirements before venturing on the road again. We will avoid any large city, any hospital with more than 300 beds and all medical training hospitals. If we were going to experience the US, it would be in the country.
It was November 2019, and we were grateful to be home, regroup, and see Kyla for Christmas. Elsa switched nursing agencies and accepted an assignment in a small town called Vidalia in Georgia. It was a six-hour drive from home and situated in the south-central part of the state. Best known as the home of the sweet Vidalia onion, the area is primarily a farming community with crops including pecans, sunflower, cabbage, and cotton. But the overall landscape is that of pine and oak forests.
As we drove up to Georgia late December 2019, strong rumors of a deadly decease called Covid started to make the rounds. By February 2020, all travel to the US were banned and the world as we knew it, ceased to exist. Hospitals became ground zero and general paranoia gripped society. We decided that I would commute every few weeks to and from Florida, in part to be safe and to complete some renovation projects at home.
Elsa found a delightful old Inn a few miles outside of town to stay at. Situated on a large family farm and surrounded by pine forests and a lake, the Inn had five bedrooms and overlooked farmland. It became her home for a year. The owner refused all visitors, and we had the run of the property for ourselves. How awesome was that!
Elsa loved the hospital and made some great friends in the process. We saw the seasons change and with it, the various crops being planted and harvested. We picked pecans, walked miles in the forest, ate southern fried food, watched deer in the early mornings and embraced the new normal. We could not have asked for a better environment to adapt to Covid. Kyla in the meantime graduated and decided to stay in South Florida and continued her work as office manager and a cardiologist’s office. It was uncertain times for sure.
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