People of Rochester - Beth
I was out for a walk with Donna, and we noticed Beth sitting on a porch looking at her phone. She readily agreed to participate in my photojournalism project, and I interviewed and photographed her from about 15-20 feet away.
I wondered if there's anything about the quarantine that she sees as positive. "Definitely," she said. Beth walks up and down city streets and discovers some really-cool houses. She's meeting new people, even if from a distance.
She's reorganized her whole kitchen ("It's never looked so good"). Now she's transforming her bathroom. She approaches her reorganization projects by completing small chunks at a time. For example, she'll organize one drawer a day. She says organizing her clothes will be the last home project ("Because that's my downfall").
For recreation, she's just finished two jigsaw puzzles. When she gets into a puzzle, she can become obsessed. In addition to walking 20,000 steps a day, Beth exercises (calisthenics) on a yoga mat. She watches shows on HBO (she just finished The Outsider) and Netflix (Ozark).
Her daughter, who lives in New Jersey, is having a baby on May12th. Her daughter's baby shower would have been yesterday (April 4th), if not for the pandemic. Beth's planning on meeting her new grandchild via Facetime, after the baby is born.
She also has a son in California, who had a baby (Beth's first grandchild) in September, and she was originally expecting to visit him a week ago. Instead, her California-based son flew to Rochester, and he's staying with his brother, Beth's other son, in Rochester.
She urged her West Coast son not to fly across the country during the pandemic. Nonetheless, she has taken walks with her sons in Rochester, while wearing a mask (But she won't let them enter her house).
Beth has three jobs that have been suspended by the quarantine, but she's glad she doesn’t have to work right now. She wants to minimize exposure to the coronavirus. And she admires people who are still working to provide essential services.