End of Quarantine

My daughter called and said, ”Congratulations, you’re free from Ebola!”

April 15 was my last day of quarantine.  I had never once developed a fever or any symptoms except some short periods of fatigue right after a brisk run and once in a while troubled by my migraine, but no aches and pain to speak of. 

This time around after my volunteering, I was quite confident that I was not incubating Ebola. My experience in Sierra Leone was slower paced and less intense than my experience in Liberia.  I also felt safe in our infection control practices in the ETC.  Of course there were the subliminal positive thoughts of family and friends and the protective “pink bubble” into its cocoon some of my Wellesley friends have placed me for the duration of my time in West Africa.  With the end of my quarantine, I can now emerge into the world without fear of infecting a vulnerable person.

I was never cooped up in my house, having long walks into the ever changing Habitat of Belmont now that spring is coming, running almost most mornings and spotting snow drops and crocuses peeking through residual snow and dead autumn leaves.  Soon there will be the bright yellow forsythia, soft pink cherry blossoms and my backyard is already covered with carpets of deep blue Siberian squill Scilla, all signs of spring that bring a song to my heart.  There are also bright red Cardinals with their less opulently colored partners, fat red-breasted robins, Canadian geese, and ducks almost always traveling in couples.  Woodpeckers peck furiously on dead tree trunks at such a speed that one wonders why they do not suffer from concussion. Once a rafter of six turkeys flew into my neighbor’s backyard rousing the interest of Grisela who pretended she was really not interested in them and skirted around them and finally made a move for the kill.  They lived.  Another evening I saw what looked like an osprey flying in the sky with its big wing span.

Siberian squill Scilla

Grisela Stalking the Turkeys

In our neighborhood there is a lone wild tom turkey which must have lost his mate for at least a year but he roams around here, occasionally making a display of his tail and his gobbles could be heard in the evening.  He must be a very lonesome creature.  My neighbor has observed Gri stalking the tom some mornings when she is not stalking the numerous squirrels here.  In the evenings there are the Belmont bunnies coming out to feed in the gardens.

The State Health Department was quite concerned about my cat being exposed to me.  There is also a myriad of animals and living things in my yard that I made friend with…

Figuring that I was no longer a threat to anyone on my last day of quarantine, I went to Wellesley College to watch the carillonneurs play the Wellesley Carillon: 30 bronze bells from England in Galen Stone Tower.  In the evening, I attended a talk by Nicolas Kristof, the Pulitzer Price Award winner about his recently published book “ A Path Appears”

Galen Stone Tower of Wellesley College

I sneaked into the Museum of Fine Arts early one morning when I felt the crowd would be thin to see the exhibitions of the internationally known Japanese artist, Katsushika Hokusai who was most known for his woodcut print “Under the Wave Off Kanagawa (Great Wave)”.  I was actually swept away by the enormous crowd in the MFA!

Hokusai Great Wave

I was not the best behaved person during the quarantine but I mourn its passing because now I have no more excuses but to resume the responsibilities out in the “real world”. 

William Wordsworth describes my mood best in his poem: I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.