I was washing the dishes and listening to the news on CBC radio when I learned, along with teachers and students, that local schools would not reopen this year, due to the pandemic. My partner and I would be working from home while our daughter finished Grade 4 online.

The ground was still mostly covered in snow, though our south-facing front garden showed patches of brown grass. The last snowflakes would fall in early May.

I sat in the front window and watched as spring unfurled, the first brave crocuses emerging in our tiny frozen front garden. As I struggled to meet work deadlines I noticed people crossing the street to point at the flowers growing in the shadow of my wrought-iron fence, dented by an enthusiastic sidewalk snowplow.

People I had never met smiled at me through the window and gestured toward the first flowers of spring. In spite of social distancing, people were coming toward me. In spite of the pandemic, spring had come.

Louise (Quebec, Canada)

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