By Lydia

We bought our home in Andes about 4 years ago. It’s our happy place and will be our next permanent home. We were downstate when the lockdown hit. Originally, we had said if that would happen we would come on up to at least spend our solitude in the beautiful place we loved. However, then we were faced with several issues. One, I saw the posting about not traveling and the reaction from locals who were very negative about the thought of second homeowners coming to their towns in the Catskills. This made me fearful that we would face that anger should we decide to go. I also saw other locals defending our right to be in our home, in the place we may not be able to live in full time now, but where we are happy, pay taxes and contribute to the community by spending money there. That gave me some solace.

The other issue was trying to be true to the “shelter in place” edict. Avoiding any possibility of moving the virus from one place to another to benefit not only ourselves by not exposing us to a broader range of people but also for the greater good or protecting us all. This is keeping us here for now. However, we are diligent in limiting our exposure to others, staying home, keeping our distance, washing our hands and have been doing so for weeks. One of us has lost their job already and the other might be impacted as well. So, the solace of the mountains might be just what we need to rest our souls. If we come, please know we will continue to practice social distancing; please don’t deny us the quiet and the peace.~