July 26, 2021

From Rachael:

2/11/2026

Picture this, it's a warm Saturday, February 29, 2020. A group of friends get together and go to a CROWDED seafood festival before [they] go to one couples' house to play Dungeons and Dragons. But this wasn't just a regular session, it was the FINALE to a years-long game. The final face-off against the bad guy and to boot, my husband and I were also going to tell our friends our exciting news that our family would be growing- due October 2020! Game was amazing, everyone was excited for us and our news! Then a few days later the

world shut down.

At the time I worked for a health insurance company and it was daily fight to keep up with constantly changing mandates and rules because we mostly dealt with mental health, but with the increased demand for beds and hospital space, health care everywhere was trying to adapt and accomodate [sic]. Add to the COVID fear of being pregnant, the social unrest at the time, and, living in Florida, hurricanes.


We locked ourselves in and barely left. Because of the state of the world, I didn't have any of the normal pregnancy fun events - shopping, baby shower, gender reveal, or even regular announcements. It was hard having to order everything online and when I did plan to have a small baby shower, it was an ordeal. We had it outside on the porch. We kept myself distanced

and masked from everyone else. And as an extra measure we kept it SUPER small and 2 groups. I had a small group of 6 of my in-laws come, we celebrated and they left. An hour or 2 later we had about 6 of my family come. Between the 2 groups we sanitized everything. Also because we kept the groups very small, some of my very large family weren't invited, not because I wouldn't have loved to celebrate with them, but because choices had to be made for safety and, to this day, nearly 6 years later, there are still bitter feelings.

After my son was born in born in October, things still weren’t better. Schools and daycares

nearby were closed or had 6-10 month wait-lists. Luckily I was able to stay home, quit my job and do my best to enjoy that first year with my son, but we couldn’t go anywhere. I was isolated without any way to connect or meet other moms and their kids. That first year, I think for any new parent, is tough but any new parents in 2020-2021 I feel also missed out on building that village. Once the vaccines were available I felt a little safer but there was still a lot for me to pause and think about, especially when it came to family and how safe (or unsafe) they were being and having to set those boundaries.

Fast forward to 2022. I'm learning to cross-stitch and I hear about Stitching the Situation on Facebook. I had wanted to join in and do some kind of Community project, but nothing really seemed right. Then I saw this and thought it amazing idea. EVERYONE was impacted by COVID in some way- catching it, knowing someone who had it, denying it, losing a job, dealing with supply chain shortages etc. I just don't see a way that anyone can think that it didn't effect them in some way.

My design started out freehand / sketched onto the fabric. I started with the "July 26" and had a vague idea of what I wanted for the background. The virus, heart and lungs- what's being effected [sic] the most. By the time I got to the “2021" I had figured out how to use a program to design the rest of it and it matter of doing the stitching at that was just point.