Surviving a Pandemic Christmas

FREDERICTON — This holiday season, people like Betty Gruffydd and Reinaldo Cascante will have to spend the holidays without their families beside them because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Zone 1 and 2 in New Brunswick, or the Saint John and Moncton areas, have returned to the Orange phase of the pandemic recovery plan. It is unclear if the number of cases reported each day will decline before the Holidays so Zone 1 and 2 can return to the Yellow phase.

This news is too familiar for Betty Gruffydd, a recently retired nurse who moved from Alberta back to New Brunswick. Regardless of the virus’s prominence here, Gruffydd’s three children live out of province, so she can’t fly to visit them, and they can’t fly to visit her.

“They have their friends and whatnot out there, which is good, but I feel kind of alone here without celebrating with them,” she said.

Considering Fredericton is still in the Yellow phase, people here can still get together, although in small groups. The provincial government encourages caution, nonetheless.

“I really find that even my friends that are here are very cautious and taking COVID precautions seriously, so I’ll probably meet with one or two of them at a time, but there won’t be any group celebration that we’re used to.”

Gruffydd’s other holiday plans include volunteering for the Greener Village Foodbank and helping to set up their Angel Tree Program display. The Foodbank’s annual Angel Tree is decorated with paper angels. More families this year may need some financial help for the holidays because of the pandemic, so they can sign up to participate in the program and write their child’s requested gift on the paper angel. Then, someone can come by and pick an angel from the tree and buy the gift written on it.

“I find people are really very generous. It’s important to help others,” she said.

While Gruffydd helps families through the Angel Tree, Reinaldo Cascante thinks it is important for international students to help each other find a sense of family away from home.

International students, according to Cascante, have a hard time deciding to go home for the Holidays even without the pandemic. The small amount of time spent at home for the break compared to the high flight prices is a barrier for many international students. However, the pandemic is now another barrier, and Cascante had plans to return home to Guayaquil, Ecuador for the holidays.

“If there wasn’t a pandemic, I would have gone home,” he said.

Some students, like Cascante, have been in Fredericton since the premature closure of St. Thomas University’s in-person classes in March. It was safer, he felt, to stay in Fredericton when COVID-19 was popping up all over the United States, Canada, and Ecuador, and because airplanes and airports are a hot spot for exposure to the virus.

It has been over a year since Cascante last saw his family, but he regularly video calls his parents and siblings. He is not the only international student with this problem, and it brings him and his fellow students and friends closer.

“As international students, being here, you get to meet people with the same background or maybe different backgrounds, but you still get the opportunity to relate to them and form a connection with them. You still have a part of your family here, a part of your culture.”

Over the holidays, Cascante plans to get together with other international students to celebrate their own traditions within the COVID-19 government regulations.