MJ Tremblay

Kwaï, Hello,

Yesterday Tuesday, which was the end of March 2020, I was in a state of panic. We are starting to see the numbers of people living with the virus in Montreal and Canada and it is not too dramatic. But the next few weeks will be crucial. At the end of last week there were still people returning from their trip. And what is beyond me is that there are many people who want to travel to Canada. No, but what is this attitude!!! Stupid and irresponsible? Finally, we see anything !

I spoke with my music therapy practitioner and it did me good! She comes from France and she lives and works in Montreal. She brought me back to Earth since I was a little panicked with this pandemic. She reassured me by telling me that it is normal to be afraid and especially to be very careful with the fake news circulating on social networks. I reassured her by telling her that I didn’t follow this kind of thing for my mental health! I asked her about her family and they are fine. Her grandmother, who is ninety years old, takes the situation rather lightly. She lived the wars there especially the second world war which made so much death and so much cruelty.

Besides, my adoptive father was a soldier in the Canadian army and ended up in England during the Second World War. I remember he kept his big metal trunk with his name and title « Lieutenant J.P. Tremblay ». I used to like going into the cellar and pulling the trunk out of the stairs. Once I opened it, I started to put my father’s clothes on and also I enjoyed playing and wearing his gas mask!!! I was telling this to my counselor. I told her that the pandemic made me think of a war not with gas masks but with surgical masks to protect the mucous membranes and the respiratory voices.

In Canada we have not gone like France, Italy and Spain but it is coming. I was saying, « Will it ever stop?  And how will it be after coronavirus? » I don’t know. Microbiologists speak of a second wave in China. When will it start again? I do not reassure myself.

So, I decided to clean my bathroom completely. It was time to clean it. It’s been a week since I cleaned it. Once a week I clean ceramic tiles, walls, ceiling, sink, bath, toilet, wash my floor, my shower curtains. That brought me back to a rather flat and down to earth everyday life. In the end, I was proud of myself for spending my nervousness in the household.