COMMUNITY VOICES
Celebrations From Six Feet Away Morgan Palmedo - Brambleton Resident
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girl’s getaway, a beach escape with my husband, and celebrations with family were how I intended to welcome turning 40, but COVID-19 had other plans. I already wasn’t excited about entering this new decade. Still, my family and friends went above and beyond to make having a quarantined birthday as memorable as possible.
April 6th started with a beautiful breakfast made by my husband and kids, surrounded by vases of flowers, balloons,
and cards. It was the perfect birthday morning followed up by a cake dropoff and air hugs from my mom, who drove from Maryland to wish me a happy birthday. From then on, it seemed like every hour on the hour the doorbell was ringing with deliveries of everything from bottles of champagne to Edible Arrangements to even more flowers. After a day of working at my kitchen counter and a stroll outside for some fresh air, we made dinner, had a picnic on the grass, and decided to set up the fire pit for s’mores in the driveway. All in all, it had been a pretty good day up to this point considering the circumstances.
As we were stoking the fire to get it going, I thought about how much I missed my friends, and although I was thankful for spending my birthday with my family, I was feeling lonely. All of a sudden, I heard the sounds of horns honking and music blaring, and I could see a parade of cars coming down my street. I had no idea what was going on, but as the cars got closer, I saw my friends and their families hanging out their windows, riding in spirit via FaceTime, holding “Happy Birthday” signs as they came towards me. I couldn’t believe my husband and friends had coordinated such an incredible surprise, and it brought me to tears. You know you have an amazing group of friends when despite the stressful anxiety of wondering “Are we too close?” and “When will this be over?”, they banded together and came up with car parades and street parties in order to make me feel special. Our lives have been turned upside down, and everyday normalcy is a thing of the past, but leave it to all of us to create new traditions and make lemonade out of an extraordinarily big bag of lemons.
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