Life in the Time of Corona And Beyond...

Pat Serby

Description

Sequel to Vienna And Beyond. The beginning of the Coronavirus was a very trying time.. Pat with her family was caught up in this time of the Coronavirus, in the epicenter, which was in New York City. People were at high risk for getting very sick and being hospitalized. Then one could end up with lingering health issues that could last of years. Then Richard, her finance, comes up with an extraordinary plan to escape.
In the second book of this series, Pat’s life in Manhattan was turned upside down with the Coronavirus, having spread to this city and cases were quickly increasing.
Soon it was called a Pandemic, and cases were doubling every few days. Then Richard, her fiancé, came up with an extraordinary plan to escape. The reader is drawn into this thriller from the beginning.

Sujets

• Time travel
• Science fiction
• Washington Irving
• Fiction
• Fantasy

Informations

• Publié par: Archway Publishing
• Date de parution: 12 juillet 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665745468
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Life in the Time of Corona
And Beyond...
 
 
 
Pat Serby
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Copyright © 2023 Pat Serby.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
 
 
Archway Publishing
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.archwaypublishing.com
844-669-3957
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6657-4545-1 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-4546-8 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023911271
 
 
 
Archway Publishing rev. date: 07/12/2023
 
 
 
 
 
This book is dedicated to my daughter, Jennifer La uren, who has become my close friend and compa nion
CONTENTS
Foreword
 
Chapter 1       A Crisis Disrupts Our Happy Home
Chapter 2       A Possible Way to Escape
Chapter 3       Escape from the Coronavirus
Chapter 4       Settling into Our New Life
Chapter 5       Romance in the Air
Chapter 6       Getting to know the people of The Hudson Valley
Chapter 7       Fitting in with the People of the Hudson Valley
Chapter 8       A Wedding in Tarrytown
Chapter 9       Washington Irving, The Man
Chapter 10     Getting Ready to Leave
Chapter 11     Getting Back to the Future
Chapter 12     Oscar Arrives in the Twenty-First Century
 
Famous Quotes of Washington Irving
Bibliography of books, articles and other sources
About the author
FOREWORD
When I was sheltered in place with my daughter, Jennifer, starting in March 2020, I decided to write about this war against the invisible enemy, the Coronavirus. It was a Pandemic, being fought all around our world. This was a time of great fear, isolation, sacrifice and loss. We had all been brought down to our knees, the strongest of us. At that time, we learned what is truly important in our lives. We learned to value the simple things in life.
The true heroes of our nation were the health care workers, doctors, grocery store workers, truckers, and delivery people. They kept our lives movin g on.
These health care workers risked their lives to take care of the infectious, sick people, in many cases, without the proper protective equipment or PPE.
Those countries where the government had taken drastic steps at the beginning, were seeing less cases and deaths. They also had the full cooperation of its people to stay at home, work at home and only go outside for essent ials.
The new phrases created by this Pandemic were to “shelter in place” and “social distancing”. Social distancing was staying at least six feet away from one another and not touching. Shelter in place was when people came home from travel or if people were exposed to this disease, to quarantine themselves in their homes for fourteen days to make sure they had not caught the Coronavirus. If they had, they were to continue sheltering in p lace.
Doctors, healthcare workers, and the police were quarantining themselves away from their families or at home, in separate areas of their home.
Families that sheltered in place together, were learning the true meaning of family and the importance of being together. Sharing a simple meal together at home was appreciated, and so was the food in our refrigerators and pant ries.
In most ways this was a dreadful time for all of us, but it did bring out the best in people. Our values had shifted from things to people and necessities. This war was not to end with this invisible enemy, as soon as, the cases begin to go down, and the deaths decrease. We would have an apex that would probably go up and down a few times until a vaccine was cre ated.
Doctors and scientists were taking out the antibodies in the plasma from patients who had gotten the Covid 19, and then were tested negative for the virus. The nurses infused antibodies into the very sick.
There were trial runs on those, who were very ill from the Coronavirus, to see if these antibodies have lessened the virus’ effects and saved l ives.
There was not one plan or guideline on how to fight the disease nationwide, in the United States. In many European countries, there was one plan and one set of guidel ines.
In America, each state had been setting their own guidelines by the number of cases, increasing cases and the number of hot spots. Many thought this was too lax, compared to how other countries of the world were handling their guidelines, as one na tion.
 
CHAPTER 1
A Crisis Disrupts Our Happy Home
J ust when Richard and I settled into our new life together in Manhattan, for less than one year, life threw us but another curve ball.
Richard after reading, The New York Times, in the kitchen eating his usual bowl of raisin bran cereal for breakfast, called out to me, “Patty please come into the kitchen.”
“You know that Pandemic in China of the Coronavirus, it sounds like it just might have started here in New York City. I don’t want to alarm you, but three people are currently being tested in New York City for the Coronavirus,” Richard added. That was on February 2, 2020, we first discussed this.
By beginning of March, The New York City news on television reported that Coronavirus cases climbed to close to 2000 cases. New York City residents were now frantically running to supermarkets and stocking up on bottled water, non- perishable foods, cans and frozen foods. The shelves of supermarkets were becoming empty.
That was shocking for me to see! I realized something horrific was about to happen.
On March 27, 2020, it was day 53 of the Coronavirus outbreak, since the first case was diagnosed in The United States.
It was now considered a Pandemic here and all over the world. My daughter, Jennifer, Richard and I lived in the epicenter of it, in New York City. We lived in Manhattan, one of the boroughs of New York City.
The three of us were now basically in our apartments all the time, except for going out for essentials, such as groceries and pharmacy items. Jennifer lived in another apartment in my apartment building. Richard, Jennifer, and I lived in a high-rise building that is 40 stories high and had over 600 apartment units in it. Our building was a community unto itself.
Richard was now working from our home reporting the news “live” from our den writing articles online. By the hour, Richard kept getting the latest statistics from all over the world.
The affiliate news stations were breaking news to each other, by zoom, conferencing online, by email, and texting. It was so grim, as the cases of the Coronavirus kept doubling and the number of deaths rising!
For weeks, President Trump seemed reluctant to enforce the Defense Production Act, granting him power to require companies to expand industrial production of key materials or products.
After overwhelming pressure, Trump invoked a national security law, compelling General Motors to mass produce breathing equipment, as the United States became the first country to top 100,000 confirmed coronavirus cases.
All New York City schools and universities in the Northeast soon closed. The New York Stock Exchange had gone into a deep recession within weeks. Trump was starting to put stimulus packages in place as the market went down 1000 points one day and up a thousand points the next day.
The cases in the United States and especially New York kept doubling every few days. Most people did not have regular face masks to go outside with. The hospitals had a great shortage of masks, surgical gloves and gowns, for doctors and health care workers to cover themselves with.
There were also great shortages of ventilators, staff and hospital beds. Make-shift hospitals were being created to help with the shortages of beds in hospitals. Convention centers, all over the country, were turned into hospitals.
One of my cousins got bilateral pneumonia outside of New York City. He had a false sense of security living in the suburbs, where his home was in a less populated area.
The next day, he was still in the ER attached to an IV, oxygen and being given antibiotics. My cousin stayed in the hospital for about 10 days and then came home. He then spent months at home, recuperating.
Those people who ended up in the hospital, were not allowed to have their family visit. The most horrific thing was if they were dying, they could not say good-bye to their families. If they were lucky, a nurse got an iPad or a cellular phone, to have the patients see their families and say good-bye that way.
The USNF Comfort Naval Hospital ship arrived and docked at the Manhattan cruise terminal, Pier 90. The ship came to treat patients, who did not have the Coronavirus. It was equipped, as well as, a regular hospital. There was on board 750 beds and 1250 of medical staff.
It was said on 1 Reuters news online on Marc