Back in North Carolina

Story and Photos by Eakin Howard

My grandmother Marian Plaut sits at least 6 feet away from my sister Zoe Howard while chatting on our back porch. Our family has always been close and though it’s nice to have my grandparents next door, we are all taking precautions to keep our distance.

When I got on I-490 out of Rochester for the agonizing 14-hour drive home to North Carolina, the feeling really hit me. I was going home because of a global pandemic. Within the span of 48 hours, RIT had extended spring break and converted classes online. Both of my on-campus jobs were gone, I’d packed everything into my car, and I was heading home. My life, like so many others, had been turned upside down.

The floor of my room is covered in everything I unpacked from my car after arriving home on March 14, 2020 in Weaverville, N.C.

I now live back with my parents and two sisters on a little hill in Weaverville, North Carolina right next to my maternal grandparents and cousin who’s staying with them for the time being. My family, including my grandparents, has always been very close. We spent most holidays together and once my grandparents moved in next to us, they would tempt me down to their house with the promise of lunch or ice cream.

My cousin Jimmy Plaut sits with our grandparents Marian and Tom Plaut on their porch while keeping a distance from a family friend Lillian Woods, their son Tim Plaut, and Jimmy’s brother Johnny. Jimmy and Johnny’s father lives in China and unable to come to the U.S. or get his kids back to China due to travel restrictions.

When I left for college in 2017, that stopped abruptly, but now that I’m back for the foreseeable future, I know they would absolutely love me to come strolling in their house looking for lunch. But they are both in their 80s and highly vulnerable to the virus, so we have been taking as many precautions as possible by shopping for them, not entering their house, and keeping a minimum of 6 feet away at all times.

My cameras hang in a tree while outside helping my mother till the garden beds she has not used in almost 10 years at our home. Since getting home, I’m learning to balance taking photographs and helping my family around the house.
The blinds above my desk are covered in sticky notes making my to-do list. Each of my now online classes is represented by a different color sticky note.

In addition to this, my daily routine has changed considerably. I no longer have 8:00 am work, sports each weekend to photograph, and for the most part, have no scheduled class times. The transition has been especially hard for me as I need the in-person lectures, demos, and critiques that are an essential part of my major. After this vanished overnight, it’s been a struggle to adapt to an entirely virtual learning environment. Having one online class was hard enough, now I have five.

My mom Brittany and my sister Zoe watch the coverage of Coronavirus in the local television news in the living room.
My mom Brittany (left) and my sisters Eliza and Zoe (left to right) watch the national news while eating dinner on the couch.

Now, I’ve set aside a lot of the photographer in me, spending less time photographing and more time helping my family as we all try and make it through this situation. Time that would have been spent working has turned into cooking, yelling at our Wi-Fi router for being slow (to no avail I might add), watching the news while eating dinner, helping garden, and when we do have to go to the grocery store, wearing gloves and hoping the shelves aren’t empty. And amidst all of that, I’m trying to adjust to a full-time online student.

My sisters Zoe and Eliza pass a young spinach plant destined for a new garden in our backyard. In the event that our family is stuck at home for a long period of time we to be sure we have enough fresh food.
My grandfather Tom Plaut helps clear out a garden bed for my mother (not pictured) in our family’s backyard. He wears a mask to help with his asthma as well as to not catch Covid-19.
My sister Eliza tosses a bag while playing a family game of cornhole in the our backyard.
Chopped onions, carrots, and celery sit on a cutting board while helping my sister Zoe cook a tater tot casserole.

This pandemic has also given us something to remember. In the next few months, I have a feeling I’m going to be spending as much or more time with my family than I had for the past three years combined. Once we all get through this, we will have memories we would never have gotten otherwise. Anything from sibling banter about what to make for dinner, awesome trick shots in backyard cornhole, or listening to our mother make snide comments about how the current administration is handling the outbreak while watching the news. We’ll all get out of this with one hell of a story. As the police sign at our local park reminds us, “We are all in this together.”

The Weaverville Police Department put up cones to keep people from visiting the local park at Lake Louise in Weaverville, N.C. This comes as North Carolina began enforcing stricter social distancing rules.
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