Stories of struggle, resilience on anniversary of COVID-19

By Andrea Busche

Well, here we are, folks. Over a year later, and we are still — still — dealing with COVID-19.

For those of us who have gotten sick or lost a loved one, COVID-19 has brought tremendous heartache and pain. For the rest of us, it has brought numerous frustrations, with restrictions on how we work, play and live.

Three Woman Today readers recently opened up about the challenges they’ve encountered during this difficult year. We discussed everything from distance learning and virtual meetings to sick relatives, socializing and more.

If there is a silver lining, it is this: During this trying year, they all learned a little more about themselves and what truly matters in life.

Work

Duluthian Iris Hiemenz is a paralegal at the Law Office of Yvonne Michaud Novak. She also has two children: a daughter, Milla,14, and a stepson, Brody, 10. Hiemenz shared how her work-life balance has dramatically changed during the pandemic.

“I went from full time at work to full time at home, and helping the kids with online schoolwork,” she said. “Then, a couple days per week I was picking things up at the office to work on at home. Work picked up, and I was back in the office a couple days per week. I'm back to work five days per week now, but only six hours per day. Luckily, my husband, Brett, has been able to work full-time throughout the pandemic.”

Kate Ferguson, also a Duluth resident, works for the Duluth Seaway Port Authority as director of trade and business development. The structure of Ferguson’s workday is vastly different these days.

Iris Hiemenz’s kids, 14-year-old daughter Milla and 10-year-old stepson Brody, play Monopoly during the pandemic shutdown. They are accompanied by the family dog, Willie the St. Bernard, who often interrupted Iris’ virtual conferences with Milla’s teachers.

“In normal times, I travel, on average, one week per month: to conferences, trade shows, educational events, etc.,” she said. “But, during the pandemic, for the first time, I have been forced to stay home. And, for the first time in my career, I actually worked from home for a short time. While I greatly enjoy being able to go for a walk while on a conference call, networking, creating relationships and collaboration are all very difficult virtually.”

Duluthian Briana Johnson is development director for the American Heart Association.

She also has two daughters, Bella,11, and Brooklyn, 8, and a grown son, Tian.

“My job for AHA was a ‘work-from-home’ job prior to COVID-19,” Johnson said, “but I still did a lot of my work in the field, meeting with sponsors, donors and volunteers, and visiting schools. That has all changed this year and everything I do is from my home office, via virtual meetings online and phone calls.

“Like many, I miss the personal connection with people,” she said. “In addition, working for a nonprofit like AHA has presented numerous fundraising challenges due to the economic effects of the pandemic.”

Distance learning

The pandemic has affected the work lives and personal time of parents and other caregivers in a huge way. All local schools have pivoted to distance learning in one way or another. Some have closed completely, while others have entered a hybrid format, where children attend school in person a couple of days per week, and utilize distance learning on opposing days. All of these nontraditional educational formats require a lot of extra effort on the part of families. Parents must ensure their children have all the connections and support they need, while also concurrently juggling their own workloads.

Briana Johnson said distance learning has presented a huge

Continued on page 34