On Friday the 13th of March 2020, I enjoyed my last meal in a fine restaurant.

My husband and I were traveling to our cabin in Northstar, and we stopped at one of our favorite sushi restaurants, The Drunken Monkey, in Truckee, CA. We sat at the bar and ordered a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. My husband, a writer and ferocious reader, kept telling me to enjoy this meal because he thought it would be our last one out for a while. I was hoping he was overreacting to the COVID virus, and that things might not be as drastic as his warnings.

As I sat at the bar sipping wine and enjoying Street Noodles and Red Dragon Roll, I could not stop watching our waitress and her bus back use enormous amounts of hand sanitizer. I could hear the staff whispering behind the bar, discussing how confusing this was for both employees and guests. We were surprised the bar and restaurant was half full because it was normally a challenge to get a seat for two at the bar. As we drove the little stretch from the Monkey to our cabin, we both looked at each other and knew that might be our last night out to dinner for some time.

The next morning, I woke to find that Vail Resorts was temporarily shutting down all of their Lake Tahoe resorts. I felt sick to my stomach. I had a season pass, 12 feet of fresh powder and 4-days of vacation planned to take advantage of the March Miracle God just bestowed on Lake Tahoe. Boarders and skiers had waited all winter for this.

“Experts term it “anticipatory grief,” feeling uncertain about the entire world out of our control.”

By the time we drove home, Governor Gavin Newsom had ordered all restaurants to suspend dine-in service. The restaurants quickly pivoted to curbside, takeout and delivery--the new normal for California.

After five weeks, I have finally wrapped my head around what we are all going through. Experts term it “anticipatory grief,” feeling uncertain about the entire world out of our control. My daily life has been uprooted. My job, now, is to help retailers in their businesses. It is heart-breaking to watch these longtime professionals lose everything overnight.

I am a social person and desperately miss dining out, socializing with my friends, hugging my grandson, and so many other things.

I know this crisis is bigger than I am, and realize I cannot do anything to control it. But it just kills me to see the suffering all around me and my retail world of friends, clients and property owners who are in shock.

In the meantime, I am encouraging all of us to help. Buy gift cards from your local restaurants, tip a little bit extra, order takeout whenever you can. Try to order curbside: app services charge restaurants 35%.

I know we are all in this together; I just wish I could see more of you, hug more of you and reach out to you more often.

Let us all get better, stay home, love our children, enjoy the fresh air.

I will see you all on the other side.

Source: ICSC, Harvard Business Review, Sacramento Chamber of Commerce