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.

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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, a novel, A Remarkable Kindness, (HarperCollins), a memoir, The Mom Who Took of on her Motorcycle, and The Loving Yourself Book for Women: A Practical Guide to Boost Self-Esteem, Heal Your Inner Child, and Celebrate the Woman You Are, an Amazon top-seller in several categories, and The Loving Yourself Workbook for Girls. 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 and is currently a reporter for The Times of Israel. Diana and her husband have six children and an unofficially-adopted daughter from Ethiopia. They live in a small village on the Mediterranean Sea in northern Israel.
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6 Responses to Coronavirus and My Husband’s Shoelaces

  1. Tom Scott's avatar Tom Scott says:

    Thank you for sharing your perspective Diana.

  2. judyakatz's avatar judyakatz says:

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

  3. Rhonda Blender's avatar Rhonda Blender says:

    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

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