How I Handle the Mail

Covid-19 means new precautions when the mail arrives.

Graphic by the author.

Who ever thought that the mail would become my adversary, as if it has taken on a life of its own?

I have always loved the daily mail delivery, a sort of roulette game that could bring random news or opportunities to your door. When I was a young teenager, I would hang around our front door just waiting for the mail to be pushed through the slot. The envelopes, flyers, and advertisement would plop down, then splay themselves across the floor.

“The mail’s here,” I would shout out to anyone who might be in earshot. I loved getting the first crack at it.

Back then, people still wrote letters to each other. I had a pen pal in England and a friend in another state, giving me hope that one of the envelopes was addressed to me.

As an adult, my husband often teased me, suggesting I was unnaturally interested in the mail. I countered that I just wanted to be sure I got all the bills that needed to be paid or any correspondence from an official source. As my older relatives died off, fewer and fewer people I knew would send hand-written cards and letters, but I kept checking just in case something interesting came in.

This month, March 2020, my relationship with the mail dramatically changed.