Staying home for more than 6 months, I don’t know what it feels like to be outside. the farthest I can go is in my backyard. Even when the lockdown was lifted, I was scared to go anywhere, not even to the store close to my house. Every time I have to stock up my fridge, I order online. I ask the shoppers to leave it at the front door. Then I have to wash and/or sanitize everything before I put it inside my house.

I couldn’t even see some of my family. The only people I see are the ones in my household. They’re not allowed to go out as much as possible but when it’s really necessary, I always have them wear complete personal protective equipment from head to toe, face fully covered and ask them to take a shower immediately when they get back. I will never take any risk. Even though it’s a hassle to do all this stuff, I would still choose to be on the safe side.

My business has been affected a lot. As much as I love to give people some jobs, I won’t take that risk either. I care for my employees’ health even though it means I had to shut down my business. It’s a real struggle. It will be hard to start over. But if it will only cost lives or at least the safety of me and my employees, I’d rather have this struggle right now. I’m not the only one experiencing this, a lot of other businesses are too. I’m hoping that we get past this and that there’s still something left for us business owners so we can rebuild our businesses when we’re all ready and when it’s safe.