Surviving in NYC -- McCook native shares life in pandemic epicenter

Editor’s note: As ”we are all in this together” during the COVID-19 pandemic, former McCook residents now living in New York City shared their experiences of quarantine in the nation’s epicenter of the epidemic. Chris Lyons, who moved to New York in 2018 from Seattle, Wash., and the son of Phil and Diane Lyons of McCook, talks about the long lines for groceries, public ridicule for not wearing a mask and the nightly 7 p.m. ritual of clapping and banging pans outside in recognition of essential workers. Chris is an executive assistant for a tech company and graduated from McCook High School in 2005.

NEW YORK — On Thursday, March 12, I left my office, located in New York’s Greenwich Village, with my laptop in my bag as there were rumblings that the office would unofficially close due to COVID-19.  On my commute home, I stopped at Trader Joe’s in midtown to buy some things for dinner that evening.  At 5:45 pm, there was an hour-long line outside the store as we all waited for enough shoppers to exit so we could enter.  Once inside, I was confronted with an hour-louhhng line to the registers that snaked throughout the entire store -- no meat, no bread, and no toilet paper.  Finally after two hours in the store, I left with a few bags of groceries that I could carry home to my apartment in Queens.  The subway was quiet and a few of its passengers wore masks while most, like myself, did not.

 The next day, Friday, March 13, was the was the first day I started working from home.  That was six weeks ago but it feels much longer.  A week later, on March 20, Governor Cuomo announced a stay-at-home order for New Yorkers.  This order closed all non-essential businesses including retail stores, theaters, hair salons, and restaurants and we were told that we must practice social distancing.  From that point on, I only went outside once a week to go to the grocery store to grab essentials.  Most of the time, the stores were sold out of these necessary items so I went to nearby markets (called bodegas) in search of milk, flour, and bread.  I remember finding my usual brand of milk in a half-gallon container for $8 and it was my only option.

Chris Lyons moved to New York in 2018 and has been in self-quarantine almost 7 weeks.

Courtesy photo

Trying to practice social distancing in a city of over 8 million presents its challenges.  In order to go anywhere we have to leave our tiny apartments and step into an elevator.  Then we find ourselves at the subway station waiting for a train before finally being taken to our possibly crowded destination.  During this time we come into contact with many people and it is impossible to maintain a distance of six feet.  When COVID-19 started appearing in New York,  many people were publicly ridiculed for wearing masks- particularly the Asian community.  This has come full circle now and if someone is seen outside without a mask, they become targets for a barrage of insults.

One big challenge of being forced to stay home is the size of my apartment.  I share my 600 sq ft one-bedroom apartment with my boyfriend and our six-month-old French bulldog.  Every day I set up my work station at our kitchen counter while he works in the bedroom.  My commute to work is under 10 seconds each morning -- compared to my usual 30-minute ride on the subway. 

In late March, a nightly ritual began that helped bring this city together.  Every night at 7 pm, people began stepping out on to their balconies and opening their windows to cheer, clap, and bang pans.  This became our nightly moment to come together and celebrate the essential workers who were fighting on the frontlines of COVID-19. It is in this moment where I can show my gratitude to all of those healthcare professionals, delivery drivers, grocery store workers, and others even though I feel so powerless in my apartment. As a city, we come together to reassure each other we will get through this. I frequently get calls from family and friends to facetime during this 2-minute applause so they can hear, see, and experience this moment of levity from New Yorkers who have been hunkered down in their apartments for at least six weeks. 

In my downtime, I have been pursuing passion projects including cross stitching, baking, learning a language, and focusing on fitness.  My hair hasn’t been cut in over two months so I bravely took scissors to my own head with somewhat presentable results!  I have enjoyed this time to pursue projects, watch Netflix, and find ways to center and anchor myself in this storm.

These last two months have been wrought with feelings of confusion, fear, panic, and dread.  But the light at the end of this tunnel is slowly appearing.  The thousands of healthcare professionals are working tirelessly to move this city forward as they come together to defeat this pandemic.  It has been hard to stay in my tiny apartment this whole time but I know that my small actions of keeping myself apart from friends, family, and strangers will serve to bring us all together that much sooner once this passes.

I frequently think about my life outside the four walls of my apartment once quarantine ends. Going to the Met museum, eating at a new restaurant, and walking around this city I call home with friends and co-workers are all things I desperately long to do.  I look forward to returning to McCook in September for the 2020 All-Class Reunion - but I know that I must carefully wait inside until this storm passes for me to safely travel and not imperil the lives of friends and family. This quarantine feels like such an imposition on my life but I know that leaving my apartment to get my haircut or go to eat at a restaurant too early would impinge on the work of countless healthcare professionals and negatively impact the lives of many Americans. 

So until then, I patiently wait inside - grateful for my health, my relationships, and my ability to weather this storm relatively unscathed.

— Thursday: Tyler Rambali Robertson