Where were you in March of 2020. Is there a moment that stands out in your memory?

I remember having dinner at my parents’ house when we first heard about the “pause”. My mom and I had just visited Prague in late January, so we were grateful for our trip. My sister is a school teacher and mother of 3, and was quite concerned about what was happening. We assured each other everything would be okay and temporary.

What about the early days of lockdown do you remember most?

I remember ordering pick up from a small local restaurant that I knew needed our help and I picked up corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day and went to my parents’ house. I also remember an inability to stay home and had to remain as active as possible but felt somewhat powerless. As someone who very much enjoys their routine, COVID was not a good fit for me.

Were you with or separated from family?

I lived with my cat.

How did you adapt to lockdown?

I used the time and experience to focus on what I COULD do, not what I couldn’t. I led a team to pivot on in-person education programs to virtual, I would focus on things that could continue progressing virtually and I continued my daily routine as closely as possible, never really letting lockdown change me.

Was there any silver lining?

You learn what is truly most important in life and how privileged we are to live in the greatest, most caring city in the world.

Do you have any family experiences to share?

In November 2020, just before Thanksgiving, my sister, her whole family, and my parents – in their 70’s – all got COVID. My mom was hospitalized, and I felt powerless. I quarantined because I was exposed but never got COVID and I was the last person in the family that could still go about my business hoping my 93-year-old grandmother wouldn’t catch COVID. The hardest part was the inability to visit the hospital and properly communicate. Thankfully, everyone is fine today.

How have we changed as a society – what stands out for you?

The thing that stands out most is how we haven’t changed. Visit a restaurant, store or crowded subway and the overwhelming majority of New Yorker’s are no longer masked. There are days that pass where I don’t think about COVID. New Yorker’s are resilient and we bounced back quickly. Perhaps the greatest legacy of COVID is not the virus itself but what came out of it: that we have a lot of work to do to fight for equity and justice in society.

What are some of the changes you have made that stick to this day?

 As someone who directly experience 9/11 and Superstorm Sandy, I have changed so much in 20 years that I’m not sure COVID has. Anyone that knew me pre-COVID would say I’m the the same person, perhaps more motivated to get stuff done.

What will you remember most about these years?

There are too many things to mention, but one memory that jumps out is walking along quiet streets of the Financial District to meet friends on Stone Street. All the table and chairs gone, the people too, but there we were to continue our routine and laugh a little.

So much comes to mind…

Professionally, starting in March of 2020 and lasting until late in 2022, it was extremely challenging to interpret and navigate the constantly changing landscape of city, state and federal regulations arising from COVID, from the essential worker exception to the stay-at-home order, the health and safety regulations, the restrictions on gatherings, the vaccine mandates and many more.

Personally, in the early days of COVID, we would cook for our family and drive around Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan dropping off care packages. This was how we were able to do a weekly outdoor check in with our family.

Where were you in March of 2020. Is there a moment that stands out in your memory?

I just came back from a ski trip where we all discussed this thing was coming but it would be over in a few weeks and then of course it was not.

What about the early days of lockdown do you remember most?

I felt as if we were living in a science fiction book. So much of the information seemed so absurd. Going to the grocery store was a planned event, wearing dishwashing gloves and a bandanna around my mouth. I felt like a gangster in our own society.

Were you with or separated from family?

We were in Los Angeles and our kids were out east We eventually all connected but that month long separation during a global pandemic was not good.

How did you adapt to lockdown? Was there any silver lining?

Humans adapt. We had no choice The silver lining was doing jigsaw puzzles, watching films, taking it down a notch until we realized it was becoming just a new way of life.

Has the Covid era affected your work or professional aspirations?

Personally, nothing has changed in regards to work. I was making changes before Covid happened. I am definitely more aware of enjoying every day with how I want to live it.

Do you have any family experiences to share?

It was very tough on one of our kids and we have three. It has created a chasm in our family in the post. Perhaps Covid just accelerated what was already there.

How have we changed as a society – what stands out for you?

Absolutely we have changed, and I believe there is more change to take place. People do not want to return to the life before Covid, but they aren’t sure exactly what their life should look like in post Covid Also it fucked up the economy and that is shifting everyone regardless of having lived through a pandemic

I embraced carpe diem after 9/11 and that has amplified post Covid. I want to have more meaningful relationships in a deeper way.

What are some of the changes you have made that stick to this day?

One dry vodka martini a day.

What will you remember most about these years?

Slowing down, reassessing relationships and life

How do you feel about “going back to normal” – do you feel or sense a resistance to it?

We are evolving we aren’t going back. I applaud the resistance to return particularly for the next generation. They need to live it differently and who knows maybe they know something we don’t.

How you feel about NYC?

I miss the grit. Hudson Yards destroyed something in NYC that pains me. We can’t survive as a diverse functional city without reigning in the real estate prices to line up with what people can afford or we will be a city of just wealthy people. Public housing should be phenomenal, and it sucks. The crime and homelessness is painful. But many of these issues started with DeBlasio at the helm. We need serious leadership and I fear we don’t have it and nobody of any worth wants to be in politics anymore.

With what thoughts or memories do you approach March 2023?

My reflections are somewhat clouded by the death of my mother in February 2022. Though the proximate cause of death wasn’t listed as COVID, she certainly died from a string of events set in motion by her contracting COVID. But there’s much more to remember…

Where were you in March of 2020. Is there a moment that stands out in your memory?

Prior to our return on March 11^th, we were in Australia and New Zealand. Both were impacted by the lack of tourists from China and we were delighted to have no lines anywhere. I remember sitting at an outdoor bar at the Great Barrier Reef with the hotel owner who suggested everything be shut down worldwide for a couple of weeks to get a handle on this. We thought he was nuts. When we came back to NYC we worked for one day before everything shut down.

What about the early days of lockdown do you remember most?

Were you with or separated from family?

My most vivid memories of the early days is the fear – not just of getting sick but of getting sick and not being isolated from my family. Early on, my husband and I decided that if one of us got sick, we wouldn’t isolate from the other – something that now sounds foolish and selfish to me. I was desperately worried about my elderly mother who lived alone not far from us. Remember in those days we worried about the virus being spread by grocery bags. Everything was terrifying. And surreal. At one point, I didn’t set foot outside my apartment for 28 days. I wore flannel pajama pants all the time.

How did you adapt to lockdown? Was there any silver lining?

Adapt, we did. I threw myself into my work, and found that working remotely suited both me and my staff. We came up with work contingencies, threw them away, came up with new ones; we thought about someone other than ourselves. There was, quickly, a new normal. We found there were more hours in the day. When I could, I’d sneak in a nap.

My 7 year old grandson called me every day after “school” so we could play a game online together. My husband became the purchasing manager for my mother and for us. Soon we had all the toilet paper and paper towels anyone could want. Though we didn’t see her in person, my mother felt cared for and content.

Soon (in April 2020) my husband and I moved out to our beach house on Fire Island. I was terrified of getting sick from the water taxi driver who ferried all of our stuff to the island. But once we were there, everything changed. My husband worked in one room and I another. We developed a pod, though still no one went inside each others’ houses. We bought heat lamps for outside. As it got warmer and we relaxed a little, we began to treasure being together. My 4 grandchildren unable to do their summer activities, masked up and came and stayed with us in various combinations all summer.

I can honestly say, that except for the fear and the sadness – or maybe because of it – we felt extra close to our friends and family in our pod. We treasured the time we had together. Things slowed down. There was an implied poignancy, a sweetness.

Has the Covid era affected your work or professional aspirations?

I’ll never work in an office full time again. I’m towards the end of my career and that’s a choice of made that’s irreversible. I won’t give up the flexibility or the independence, or the occasional nap.

Do you have any family experiences to share?

See above. Also, like so many couples, being locked up together revealed the true essence of my marriage. I’m lucky that was a good thing. Avery good thing. I love having lunch with my husband in the middle of the week.

How have we changed as a society – what stands out for you?

I don’t think COVID changed us, per se, as much as it exposed and accelerated changes that were already simmering beneath the surface. Political differences and class differences became more vivid and disturbing. The five day work week probably died forever. Our health care system, with all its heroism and its inadequacies, was on display to everyone. Black Lives Matter and the attendant reactions to it, took center stage. We largely stopped going to movie theaters.

What are some of the changes you have made that stick to this day?

I still wear a mask on the subway. I did however, stop using my Peleton and rejoin the gym.

What will you remember most about these years?

The strangeness of it. The whole thing felt like an anomaly, though I don’t think we’ll ever be the same. It was like 9/11 in that way.

How do you feel about “going back to normal” – do you feel or sense a resistance to it?

I don’t think there’s any going back. I think we’re struggling to define a new normal. We’ll get there.

How you feel about NYC?

Never, ever bet against NYC.

On March 9, 2020, the catering industry was beginning its annual gathering of the tribes in Las Vegas, also known as Catersource. The attendees started the week in a festive mood, having come off a generally very successful 2019 catering year. The future looked bright, and most of the caterers were looking forward to bigger and better business opportunities.

There had been some concern expressed about a contagion breaking out, including a quarantine order for those returning to the US from Wuhan China. But most of the Catersource attendees assumed that this would have only a minimal impact on their businesses.

However during that week, it all got very real all of a sudden. Quarantine orders for cruise ship passengers, and stay at home requirements for the entire state of California, got a lot of attention. Then on March 11 during the middle of the industry conference, the World Health Organization designated the breakout as a pandemic.

For those of us who were involved in organizing or running sessions for the conference, the impact of this news was hard to overstate. Early in the day on the 11^th, things seemed relatively normal. But by the middle of the day, attendees were running out of the room during the middle of classes to take urgent phone calls from their home offices. The buzz around the conference was that events were being cancelled right and left, and that the industry faced a most serious crisis in the modern era.

By the end of the 11^th, the attendees had started to depart Las Vegas to head home, a day or two earlier than they had planned. The stay-at-home orders began to spread around the country, and virtually all catered events were cancelled or postponed. Of course, everyone still needs to eat, so the catering industry didn’t close down altogether. But the meal programs and delivery services the caterers began to offer in no way replaced the events revenue that was lost.

Covid has proved to be the most consequential external event in the history of catering – much more so than Black Monday, 9/11, the Great Recession, or any other recent catastrophe. Overall industry revenue declined by 45% between 2019 and 2020, and without some government grants and subsidies many caterers wouldn’t have survived.

Yet business has started to improve, and the expectation is that it will continue to for the foreseeable future. The recovery that the catering industry has enjoyed proves the concept that man is a social animal, and that interactive events facilitated by food and drink are important to society as a whole.