On March 13th, 2020 the world shut down due to the spread of COVID-19. School was canceled and we were asked to shelter-in-place. Thus began quarantine 2020. Originally, it was suppose to be for two weeks which then lead to a month and then just kept going into the summer. It was/still is a time in life we will never forget. We can’t imagine the stories we will tell or the books they will write about this incredibly complicated time in history when a global pandemic took over the world.
The Mellor family grew to love quarantine 2020 and we still miss the simplicity of never leaving the ranch. The hours blended into days and the days blended into weeks and I’m still not sure what happened from March until July. And that is what we miss; the hours and days that just became one and nothing else mattered but being together and safe and… what was for dinner. Of course, there were moments when I completely lost my cool and everything was thrown out the window, especially with online homeschool. There were also the moments when the kids learned to scrub toilets as we cleaned the entire house together. We felt exhausted and completely fulfilled through hard work that connected us to the greater good of our family. I would like to say we had a tiny taste of how our past generations lived life – just forced by a pandemic for us.
We’ve never felt more incredibly grateful and sustained to live in Park City. The term “love where you live” is still ringing in our ears. We miss Europe and airplanes and the excitement of travel, but Park City has shown up for us in every way. We are lucky to have amazing friends and schools open to see us through to the other side. We can’t wait to see what that new world looks like, post-pandemic. As I’m writing this at the end of October, cases are surging all over the world and breaking records in Utah. It’s starting to feel scary again; the great unknown of what this looks like come December makes us cringe. However, we figured it out before and now we might even look forward to the next time our family quarantines at Mellor Ranch… as long as we continue to avoid getting sick. Who knows, we may even get to eat those 200 frozen burritos John bought back in March 😉
We hope all of our family, extended family and friends continue to stay safe and healthy. We hope our country learns from these tragic and confusing times. We also hope our family never forgets quarantine 2020 and knows we now hold this secret super power called “quarantine”. Until this never happens again…
Some of our favorite journalistic photos below… not necessarily in order because it really all does blend in (and there were like 500 good photos). Feeling overwhelmed with gratitude to be alive and to live on through these moments.
