I’ve been thinking a lot lately of both my grandmothers. My grandparents lived thru the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. My maternal grandfather & great-uncle were in a Nazi work camp, & their fiancées, my grandmother & great-aunt, cycled 4 hours every day to bring them food.

My paternal grandfather went into hiding when the Nazis demanded that he go to Germany to work in a factory, so my grandmother looked after their home & 2 young children all alone. When he came to visit, he didn’t even dare set foot in the house, speaking to her thru the keyhole.

This memory that my family has endured hard times before with great strength and resilience is a source of comfort and strength to me now.

2020 was a hard year. We’ve all celebrated the arrival of 2021, but the truth is that even with a vaccine on the horizon, the next few months are likely to be some of the most difficult months of the pandemic.

On the one hand, people are tired, they are longing for the comfort of family and friends, and they are disillusioned by the betrayal of trust by politicians who tell them to make sacrifices while breaking the rules themselves.

On the other, the virus is not going away any time soon, and the new variant means that we are at risk of many more infections. Before we reach the state of herd immunity thru mass vaccinations, we may face even stricter lockdown measures.

More of us will lose loved ones this year. I’m terrified about my loved ones with high risk factors, especially my sister who lives in long-term care. There are many months before I will finally able to see friends & family again. These first few months are not going to be easy.

But I’m also aware that my grandmothers would have jumped at the opportunity to swap their major crisis for mine. Locked down with your family, sufficient food, means of communicating with family and friends across the country? Yes please!

The events of World War II marked Aaltje Struiksma & Martje Boonstra for the rest of their lives. That’s how I know all of these stories. But they also went on to lead full lives, raise families, move across the ocean, see their grandchildren grow up & meet their great-grandkids.

This lockdown isn’t fun. It’s hard. It sucks. It may leave a mark. But those of us who can stay home need to in order to protect those who can’t. Life will return. It will be beautiful again. We can do hard things.