Another effect of the coronavirus crisis: Forgiveness
When the COVID-19 shutdown started, Kristen Simpson’s thoughts turned to the father she barely knows.
He’d separated from her mother when she was a baby, and was never around much after that, even after her mother died. Battling a drug addiction, he’d ended up in jail. Ms. Simpson admits that her response was “really ugly” the one time he tried to initiate contact when she was a young adult.
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Thirteen years on, the arrival of the pandemic made her reevaluate their relationship. “I don’t want another one of my parents to not be here,” says Ms. Simpson, now an illustrator and mother in Fayetteville, Georgia. “We don’t know how much time we have to make things right in this coronavirus, knowing that he works for a job where he has to leave his house and safety.”
She was aware that her father, long clean of drugs, works as a pizza delivery man in Florida. A few weeks ago, she cold-called
Shift in emphasisA time for reaching outCareful consideration and humilityWeighing forgiveness
