Coronavirus and My Husband’s Shoelaces

Here’s my latest blog at Times of Israel on the Coronavirus and my husband’s shoelaces.

The other day, hours before Israel imposed a countrywide lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus, I rode my moped to a grocery store in the nearby town of Nahariya, and then took a few moments to search for a pair of shoelaces for my husband, Jonny. I always go to an old-fashioned shoe repair shop in a small side street. The repairman has worked magic on my four-inch high heels, and refashioned my orthotic inserts for my sneakers. Surely, he’d have shoelaces. But the government deemed his shop non-essential so it was shuttered, along with almost every other store except supermarkets and pharmacies.

At home, I scrounged up an old shoelace, convincing Jonny that he was now a fashionista in his work boots with one purple shoelace and one gray one. At least my husband has a job. For today. He works in the 200-acre avocado groves of our village, Shavei Zion, about 75 miles north of Tel Aviv and if you keep going for twelve more miles, you’ll reach Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.

You can read the rest of the article here.

About dianabletter

Diana Bletter is the author of several books, including The Invisible Thread: A Portrait of Jewish American Women (with photographs by Lori Grinker), shortlisted for a National Jewish Book Award. Her novel, A Remarkable Kindness, (HarperCollins) was published in 2015. She is the First Prize Winner of Moment Magazine's 2019 Fiction Contest. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, tabletmag, Glamour, The Forward, The North American Review, Times of Israel, and is a reporter for Israel21C, and many other publications. She is author of Big Up Yourself: It's About Time You Like Being You and The Mom Who Took off On Her Motorcycle, a memoir of her 10,000-mile motorcycle trip to Alaska and back to New York. She lives in a small beach village in Western Galilee, Israel, with her husband and family. She is a member of the local hevra kadisha, the burial circle, and a Muslim-Jewish-Christian-Druze women's group in the nearby town of Akko. And, she likes snowboarding and climbing trees.

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6 Responses to Coronavirus and My Husband’s Shoelaces

Tom Scott says:

March 27, 2020 at 9:10 am

Thank you for sharing your perspective Diana.

- dianabletter says:
  
  March 30, 2020 at 10:19 am
  
  Thank you, Tom, for reading! Stay safe and keep praying UP for all of us!
  
judyakatz says:

March 27, 2020 at 11:06 am

I love this, Diana. Stay well. xoxo Judy Katz

- dianabletter says:
  
  March 30, 2020 at 10:18 am
  
  Thank you, Judy! Hope you and your family stay healthy!
  
Rhonda Blender says:

March 30, 2020 at 2:46 pm

Hi Diana! Glad to hear you are holding up during the pandemic. All of us in Chicago are locked up in our homes except for runs to the drugstore, grocery or to walk pets. The humans are allowed out for walks as long as we keep distance from each other. It’s so weird!! Appreciated your article and let me take this time to wish you a happy Passover. I was suppose to fly to Pennsylvania for the holiday but that’s now cancelled. Hopefully I can visit there in the summer when this medical mess has calmed down…All the best- Rhonda

- dianabletter says:
  
  April 1, 2020 at 8:23 am
  
  Happy Passover to you, too, Rhonda. I hope things calm down and you stay safe and healthy! It is surreal…All the best to you, Diana