Betsy's Blog

How did I spend my 44th Wedding Anniversary? Alone at a Thai restaurant across the river from Laos where I work at an international school. Six weeks ago, I caught one of the last flights out of Laos where all schools closed due to the Coronavirus 19. Lao airport was full of tourists fleeing the country. The country has remained locked down for the past three months. When Laos closed its borders, they tracked and traced people with the virus and it worked. So far, there have been no deaths from the Covid19 in Laos. Everything was closed down in Thailand when I arrived except for grocery stores, take out food, and 7/11 stores. Masks were required, and swimming pools and beaches were closed with a penalty of $3000 and a jail sentence of 60 days. The sale of alcohol was banned for a month. Police arrested some tourists drinking wine at a pool party and threw them in jail. I purchased “under the counter” wine at our local convenience store and carried it back in a black bag nervously to ou...

I did for the first time and hopefully my last time today. The world has shifted with new restrictions for public rituals due to the Pandemic. We have all had to adapt to the new norms. One of these rules bans church funerals due to large crowds. Instead, the family can only invite ten people to the gravesite and that includes the minister and the cemetery worker. So that leaves you with only eight family members and friends at the service, but many more on Facetime live. It was raining as we waited in our cars at the cemetery entrance with our face masks on. My mask hid tears for my dear mother who passed away only five days ago at age 91. My mother had planned a funeral in her church that held 80 people a few years ago when she was deathly ill in the hospital. However, my mom is a trooper and recovered to resume her life again. She flew west to her grandchildren’s weddings and south to her favorite island in the Bahamas. My mom always had a smile on her face with ...