Manitobans are funny ducks

We have always been reactive as opposed to proactive. New stops signs don’t go up until there is a fatal accident. Speed zones don’t get changed until a child is seriously injured. We will not take this Covid 19 seriously until someone close to home dies. Then, being true to our nature, we will complain, kvetching over our Timmy’s cups. “Why didn’t the government do more? Why weren’t we warned better?’
Well, guess what people?! The government is warning us. They are telling us what we need to do. A reporter asked Prime Minister Trudeau why he has not enacted the emergencies act. His answer, and I paraphrase because our PM never says anything simply, “Because! If we do what what we should be doing, we may not have to.”
So much changed in a week. Our two daughters arrived for a surprise visit on Wednesday, March 11, the day that things really started to get serious. They did get a nice visit with my mom the next day, but we were in a busy restaurant. Sarah is in a fall wedding and on the Saturday we were in a crowded bridal shop helping her pick out her maid-of-honor dress. Then we went to visit Larry’s mom. She is in a lock-down facility for dementia sufferers. I had called on Friday to find out what their protocol for visitors was. They asked that we take her out, as opposed to four people coming in. In the time it took me to walk to her suite, change her hearing aid batteries and put on her boots and coat they had begun to close down the facility. We went for a fast-food burger, had a quick chat and then drove back to the residence. Thirty minutes, tops! When we returned, the facility was only allowing essential visits. The next day ~ no visits.
Sunday, we had a family dinner. The girls saw my parents, aunts and uncles and cousins. They did not see any relatives from Larry’s side. By Tuesday, we were scrambling to get Samantha on a plane so she could get home to her husband. She arrived in Utah just in time for the earthquakes. She and her husband both work from home. Sarah headed back home on Wednesday afternoon, her retail job had closed its doors, so extended holiday for her. Her boyfriend is in school, so on-line courses for him.
Personally, Larry and I have done our best to self-isolate. We began preparing early, Larry is a bit of a worry-wart/prepper. We got food in the house and plenty of TP,(before the panic hit) and enough pet food. Now we sit and wait. We cannot go visit my parents. My mother-in-law, who is deep in the throes of Alzheimer’s, is without visitors. We have friends who are nurses, who are worried about infecting their families. We have friends whose children are nurses, and must self-isolate. We have a friend whose son-in-law works at Costco and is an official TP disperser. We have friends who are working out of town and cannot get home. We have friends who were traveling and need us to buy groceries for them as they quarantine for 14 days. We have friends whose children were overseas and had to come home through Dubai. Dubai!!
But we, Manitobans, just sit back, because this kind of thing doesn’t happen in Canada and would never really affect Manitoba.
But it can and it has. We have a very low infection rate right now. Let’s keep it that way. Don’t wait for the first senior, or infant or cancer patient to die. Stay safe, stay healthy.