FALL RIVER — Mother’s Day is usually associated with brunch, flowers and big family gatherings, but this year it will be more about Zoom, Facetime, social distancing in the backyard and takeout meals.
After her mother, Celestina Francisco, battled COVID-19 in a nursing home for three weeks, Westport resident Jackie Francisco is just happy to say her mom has finally recovered this Mother’s Day.
“So, for me, this is a very different Mother’s Day,” said Francisco. “My mom has been in a nursing home for the past five months. When this all hit, I was so scared for her, and as you can imagine, when she was diagnosed with COVID-19, I feared the worst…. She has been symptom free for a week. So, my new ‘normal’ is daily calls to her and to her nurses.”
Early last week, Francisco said she decided to transition her mother home to live with her and she hope she would be home in time for Mother’s Day.
Social distancing will change the way Fall River resident Laura Ferreira Washington celebrates Mother’s Day this year. Usually they have a big family cookout with lots of grandchildren and extended family, but that won’t be the case this year. Washington runs an addiction medication clinic as the SOAR project director at Steppingstone in New Bedford and her mother, Gail Ferreira is a hospice nurse. While they’ve been spending time together, they’ve been social distancing from the rest of the family.
Washington said she’ll make dinner for her parents and her children, but for the rest of the family it will be phone calls and FaceTime. “The strangest thing is I’m not able to go shopping for her so it’s looking like flowers and dinner,” said Washington. “It’s definitely a Mother’s Day we won’t forget.”
Fall River resident Patti Rego spends Mother’s Day morning “oohing and aahing over homemade gifts from my daughters while enjoying a coffee and whatever breakfast delicacy my heart desires, because everyone knows calories don’t count on Mother’s Day,” she said.
It’s typical for her large Portuguese family to gather on Sundays for big smorgasbord-types of lunches and Mother’s Day would be no exception. Those extended family Sundays lunches have been on hold for the past two months and Mother’s Day will be very different this year, she said.
Her mother, Connie Rego, who is 70, lives with her so she will be part of the celebration at home, but her 95-year-old grandmother, Gilberta Brum, and her mother’s siblings will be included from afar. “It’s definitely been hard for my mother and her siblings. I guess this year we’re going to have to get creative and set up a family Zoom or Facetime. It’ll just be nice to see each other,” said Rego.
Still, it will be a fun day with her husband, Cory Platt, a chef at Mesa 21, cooking for them and possibly a family outing for ice cream afterward with the kids, Maxine and Halle Jayne.
Westport resident Stacy Silva-Boutwell, also known as the Portuguese American Mom blogger, said her family is planning a socially distanced get-together this year with her sisters and their spouses and their parents, Tony and Natalia Silva, also of Westport. Though her in-laws also usually join in the celebration, they’re in their 70s and will be staying home in Abington for Mother’s Day. Still, Silva-Boutwell’s kids, Lucan and Alaina made cards and crafts that were shipped off to them and they were planning a video chat for today.
Her family doesn't typically like to wait at restaurants on Mother’s Day, so they normally get together at her house for a cookout. This year, they’re still meeting up in the backyard, but they’ve decided to order takeout food from a local restaurant to support local business, she added.
Even though so much has changed in how people live their daily lives since the COVID-19 pandemic, it won’t change much in the way Fall River resident Stefanie Bonalawicz LaFontaine celebrates with her family this year. Typically, her husband, Sean, grills up a nice meal and makes chocolate-covered fruit for dessert for her their two kids, Joan and Connor. “We keep it pretty simple, as is my preference. I love sappy cards so I am sure my hubby and kiddos will get me one. The kids usually pick out the card, but my husband will do it for them this year,” said Bonalawicz LaFontaine, a music teacher in Somerset.