WE MET YESTERDAY

We met yesterday for the first time in nearly three years. Our Book Club last met in my home in February 2020. It had been a jolly affair with a lot of laughter and we were looking forward to the next meeting in a different home in March … only there wasn’t. By the end of that month the country was plunged into a hard lockdown in an attempt to curb the spread of COVID. We couldn’t even see family members, let alone friends and acquaintances.

The WhatsApp group buzzed with jokes, links to literary matters, messages reaching out to each other, puzzles … then inertia crept in. Messages dwindled, became more focused on memes about the virus (which not everyone appreciated), about Trump (which fewer people appreciated) and fewer people responded – the only polite way to indicate a preference to leave politics and the virus out of communications.

We didn’t see each other for months on end. Some people, like me, still buy groceries at half past six on a Monday morning – as soon as the supermarket opens. Others took advantage of having their groceries delivered, while yet others chose to shop later in the day. The supermarket or the pharmacy were the only places where one might meet people in those early days of lockdown – all wearing masks of course.

Months later, I greeted one of our members who passed me while I was out walking. I was wearing a hat and dark glasses – as well as the mask still – for the day was hot. I greeted her and we both continued walking for a step or two. She turned round then and called my name. Her voice carried a startled note and she stared at me for a moment, pulled her mask down and called out “I didn’t recognise you!” I didn’t blame her. Having been short-sighted forever, I tend to recognise people by their gait.

Yesterday a member phoned “I can’t find your house!” She had driven past it several times without recognising the gate. The trees have grown in three years and so has the bougainvillea tumbling over the fence. My house is no longer clearly visible, although the gate remains the same. “I can’t believe it,” she said on arrival. “I have been coming here for nearly thirty years!” But not for three years in a row.

Early on there was a suggestion that members continue to meet on Zoom … it fell flat. One member said “I don’t have YouTube”, which gives you an idea of the technological capabilities of the group. People were still reluctant to have too many people in their homes at once … then, we could dispense with masks; we could visit each other; life was gradually returning to normal …

Still we did not meet.

Then, yesterday – at last – we did! Some members have left town, but the rest gathered in my home and it felt good. I had to serve tea on arrival because the power went off promptly at three o’clock and wasn’t to come back until half past five (that makes it sound as if the power went for a walk!). We all brought a book or two and it was fun to hear again about authors we had not read, or had forgotten about; to experience again the different points of view about books we were familiar with; to catch up briefly on what has happened in the interim; and just ‘to be’ in the company of people we have shared so much with over the years.

So, our Book Club has not died after all. One could say it has been comatose all this time – thanks to the pandemic – but there is life in us yet and we plan to meet again in January, filled with the expectation of many more meetings to come.

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