Cornbeef, Cabbage and Corona(virus)

I made Jamaican corn beef and cabbage today. It may not seem like a big deal but as soon as the COVID-19 pandemic struck that's the first thing my mother told me to stack up on. It's significant. Why? Because the only other time that I remember being stuck in my house like this was when Hurricane Gilbert, a catagory 5 hurricane hit Jamaica.

I was around 4 or 5 at the time and all I could remember was tales of people being decapitated by zinc roofs, my mother hopping in the back of a pick up truck to get supplies, her being gone for a few hours, though it felt like a few days. Her small 5'3 frame dimming in the white sheets of rain as she hopped into my uncle's pick up truck. My cousins consoling me that she would come back as they were able to process the sheer terror that blanketed my face. She came back of course bearing gifts, some of our clothes from the house, few valuables and loads and loads of tins corned beef.

Corn beef and rice became a staple as that was what survived the lootings, the flooded out and destroyed grocery stores. So when my mother in her high pitched, fast talking jamaican patois says "Mek sure you get bully beef" I know that is her way of signaling: "make sure you safe" "this COVID-19 thing is serious and I'm worried" "this is reminding me of past trauma".

All this to say check on your immigrant parents. There way of connection is most likely through suggestions that you eat and reprimands about saftey. Also feel free to double up on your self care (exercise, extra naps, snuggles, art etc) and of course don't forget the bully beef.