Seven months ago, I walked up and down my block in Cambridge to find out how my neighbors were faring weeks into the lockdown ordered by Gov. Charlie Baker. Few people were wearing masks, but even fewer people were on the streets at that time.
Quite a bit has changed on Maple Avenue since March. Trees that sprouted green and yellow in springtime have morphed into shades of autumn red and orange. The deep silence that descended on the street 213 days ago has given way to routine traffic noises. And faces that were hidden behind curtains are back out on the street, but obscured by masks.
Maple Avenue is clearly different than it was, but it is not suffering as badly as other places, said my neighbor Risa Mednick.
“The contrast between bucolic Maple Avenue and the rest of the world are pretty intense right now, and it's frankly really challenging to wake up each day and see the flowers blooming and, you know, the greenery all around us on our lovely street and know how much people are suffering around us,” she said.
In March, Mednick — the former executive director of Transition House, a domestic violence prevention organization — was volunteering with food banks to deliver groceries to folks who needed them. Seven months later she is still making those rounds and said the need has never let up.
“There are still people waiting in line for their unemployment claims from March to be approved that have gone without income for six months.”
A few doors down, Lisa Thurau counts herself among the lucky ones. She runs a nonprofit that trains police how to interact with youth. She said her organization, Strategies for Youth, is still around thanks to a PPP loan. She said the other unfortunate factor contributing to her nonprofit’s survival was the escalation of conflict between police and communities of color.
“We started getting more calls asking for our services," she said.
Others here on Maple Avenue have lost jobs due to the pandemic, including dentist Katie Ferrante.
“The clinic I work at has actually decided to permanently close after 60 years," she said. "So that's a large change that we're going through.”
She and husband Chris Ferrante said the upside is that they get to spend more time with their infant daughter, even though he’s still on the job every day as a real estate developer. And his work has changed as well. “You get up every morning like it's a normal day. And then just go as far as the room at the end of the hall.”
The Ferrantes are a tight knit family and Chris said the pandemic resulted in greater separation than they have ever known.
“Haven't seen Katie's family since ... the travel restrictions went into place in early March," he said. "That was the last time that we saw them until now.”
Mary Ann Webber, Chris’ mother in law had flown in that day from Florida for the first time since winter. She said she was determined to be present for her granddaughter’s first birthday. But she had lots of reservations about flying.
“I mean, it's scary because I am less concerned about myself, obviously, than I was about bringing something here to them, so I made sure to have a COVID test.”
And the pandemic is leading my 11-year-old neighbor, Satchel, and his family to leave Maple Avenue. In March, his mother Emily said that with Satchel and his two siblings home from school, their condo had been turned into a combination classroom and gymnasium, with classes and exercise competing for space. In the end, the family decided to move to a house with a big yard.
Satchel said he will miss Maple Avenue, “but I think most likely we're gonna keep in touch probably. And that'll be really nice.”
The pandemic will eventually lift and the rhythms of life will return to some version of normal on Maple Avenue. But some marks left by COVID won’t fade for many years.
