To the Editor:
Our family has always gotten together for Thanksgiving. This Covid-19 Thanksgiving, my children and grandchildren have agreed to pay it forward.
Instead of getting together as usual, we’re going to have a dish exchange. Grandma will send her famous macaroni and cheese to their house. My daughter will send her delicious candied sweet potatoes with pecans to Grandma’s house. We’ll exchange our baked salmon and salad with our dear friends. We’ll share our Thanksgiving dinner grace together — always a sharing of gratitude — over Zoom.
My children and grandchildren are willing to share Thanksgiving together this way so that they might have Grandma with them at the table next year and for some years to come. I love my children and grandchildren for being willing to sacrifice to save my life.
Gwendolyn Hamilton
Walnut Creek, Calif.
The writer is a retired pediatrician.
To the Editor:
Re “Like in Narnia, This Curse Will End” (Sunday Review, Nov. 22):
Peggy Wehmeyer is right on the mark. Sad is putting it mildly. This is the first holiday season that we will not visit our two sons in New England, their wives and our three grandchildren. FaceTime is no replacement for the warmth of a grandchild on our laps as we share their favorite books.
We haven’t seen our son in Leicester, England, his wife and their dog in three years. Had to get a refund for the plane tickets we had last spring.
That said, it would be sadder still if we weren’t around to enjoy all of these pleasures, after a vaccine. It’s worth the sacrifice to stay alive. So many have not. That’s profound sadness.
Kathleen Sellers
Hopewell, N.J.
To the Editor:
Re “Testing Demand Strains Public Health Systems as Clinics Are Overrun” (front page, Nov. 14):
I was taken aback by the woman who said she was being tested (two weeks in advance) so she could spend Thanksgiving with her grandchildren.
Being tested two weeks out doesn’t protect anyone or guarantee anything. It may say that you are negative at that point, but you still have two weeks to potentially contract the virus and bring it with you.
We all have Covid exhaustion, but with the numbers skyrocketing, please just stay home. Every grandparent longs to see grandchildren, but it’s just not worth the risk to yourself or anyone you come in contact with, family or strangers.
Christine Penberthy
Branford, Conn.
To the Editor:
Re “Experts Warn of ‘Time Bombs’ as Students Travel for Holiday” (front page, Nov. 10):
Even if the students have two negative tests just before leaving, sending them through airports during the busiest days of a pandemic is about as safe as sending them through environments like ill-fated cruise ships or crowded bars.
Although colleges are now strapped for funds and time is short, it would be much more humane for colleges to help arrange car pools, especially for students who live just a few hundred miles away. They might even consider renting small vans to help deliver a set of students who live near each other.
I hope we can all continue to think flexibly during these difficult times.
Molly Scheffe
Carlisle, Mass.
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