The office is dead empty. I tell Apollo not to touch anything as I print out a couple of second-grade worksheets for him from school, the price for not owning a printer at home. My wife and I will try to make sense of them and try to help him through them, but I know us. We won’t. We will struggle and fight, and then after a little bit of success, no thanks to us, we will go to sleep at night promising to do better the next day. And the day after that. And the day after that. This is #quarantinelife.
I saw a meme the other day, the modern-day equivalent of remembering a passage from a book or a stanza of poetry, and it said that as long as your kids are healthy at home, do not beat yourself up for not being Mary freaking Poppins. And while I don’t know who wrote it, I now claim it as gospel. Not only is Apollo healthy, but my wife and I are, too. Besides, I have a paper to run. It’s small, and it’s bruised, but it still exists.
They’re all gone, all of my fellow writers and editors, most of the sales staff, and most of the production department. Over the course of a single letter from our owner, they were added to the 3.3 million newly unemployed. I miss my buds: Jeff, the calm voice of reason; Eric, who’s funnier than any standup comic I’ve ever seen; and Scott, probably the nicest guy you’d ever met. I’m fine-tuning my resume as we speak.
As grim as it looks, there is still hope. In sending the letter, Lee Newquist, a guy who’s been in the newspaper business since the 1980s, indicated that maybe once we come out on the other side of this, we could return to full strength. The thought that maybe my team will be reunited and perhaps augmented helps keep me going. Our readers do, too. Thanks for being there and for continuing to click on all of this exclusive, virus-related content we’ve been posting. It means as much to you as it does to us.
Though times will be tough these next few weeks, you will still be able to count on us as the one and only independent voice for news and the arts in Tarrant County. That’s because what remains of our team is committed to keeping you informed and entertained no matter what. We are confident that we will return to beast mode soon. Thanks for reading in print or online or via social media, and remember: Not only should you be getting it every week, you should be logging on to Fwweekly.com every day.
