Jay's last day of classes was Tuesday, February 25

Since then I have been getting the covid 19 log every evening instead of the Seoul subway report. He was of two minds about the closure and so was the owner of the hagwon until it was discovered that the father of one of the students, who also lives in the same apartment block as the owner, had tested positive for the virus. At that point the government went into action, completely disinfecting the school and closing its doors. May's schools had already closed the week before, so now they spend most of their time at home. Jay went to the nearby park for a rousing three hours of solo basketball the other day, which was good except that it aggravated the ankle that he broke so seriously while he was living in Montreal. It still has a plate in it. The throbbing is slowly diminishing. They aren't even seeing May's brother and family now because the latter want to make sure that Jay shows no signs of the virus before exposing their two young boys to him. So life is fairly uneventful for Jay and his crew. 

On Wednesday, March 11 it will be ten years since Jim died, ten years and so many changes for Jay and me.  Jim was a powerful presence, and I feel his absence intensely at times. But our lives go on. Jay has married, lived and worked in South Korea, Vernon and South Korea again and I have moved to and lived in the little house in Vernon that Jim and I bought before he died. I have made new friends, travelled to visit old friends and family and seen places I hadn't been to before. We have carried on and discovered that we are quite good at that. It's the element of the unknown in life that keeps me in it. That's easier for me to say than it is for many people. But then I'm happily surprised by the fact that the sun is pouring into this room as I write. 

The sunroom

May has been going through old family pictures during their confinement. She came upon one of her dad that reminded her of one of Jim that I have on the fridge. I took it when we were in Rome. He had just had his hair cut, the best cut of his life, I thought. May's dad and Jim had similar builds and both loved tennis. Jay's comment on the pictures was, "They are both styling their coolest haircut ever. May's dad is the Filipino Elvis." Both men died young.  

Mo and John are away, so I stopped by to check on their house yesterday. When I picked up the mail I was struck by the cover of John's latest copy of 'The Economist'. Two men who got old and angry.