From the New York Times:
The coronavirus pandemic has upended the lives of many American families.
Monica Duffey, 61, looks forward to the day before Christmas Eve. That is the day, every year, that one of her brothers picks her up from the group home in Waukesha, Wis., where she lives with seven other women who have developmental disabilities. Rituals are important to Monica, an avid consumer of Penny Press crossword puzzle books and a lifelong fan of the R&B group Brenda & the Tabulations. Since her parents passed away, Christmas has meant celebrating with her eight siblings, Joe, Maureen, Tom, Tess, Anne, Katie, Dan and Peter — who have been known to compete over giving Monica the present she likes most.
The holiday usually also includes a weeklong visit with Maureen, who along with Tom, serves as her guardian, and a rotation of visits with other siblings and their families. But this year, as coronavirus infections surge through Wisconsin, residents of the group home have been asked to forgo family visits. Maureen and the other Duffey siblings have discussed the change in plans with Monica many times, yet it still dominates their phone conversations.
Read it here.