Two whole cakes | and a slice of Bellingham

Images by Colin Stanley Hovde. Words by Adriana Nodal-Tarafa.
April 25, 2020

Colin drove up north near the U.S. border with Canada on a weekday. Before hitting the highway, he crossed one of the most recently gentrified areas of town in a minuscule fraction of the time it used to take. It was usually frustrating to traverse that traffic bottleneck. Now, instead of lamenting the crowded street, he stood still on a red light that turned green, taking pictures. No one drove up next to his car, no one honked. No one minded because no one was there. 

The eerily quiet pattern held up the whole way to Bellingham, built on the ancestral homeland of the Lummi Nation and the Nooksack Tribe, but the silence slowly felt beautiful as he left Seattle behind. 

The people Colin visited seemed to be following physical distancing strictly. As I wrote this entry, I learned that controversy had stirred the  Washington healthcare community because a veteran emergency room physician got fired in Bellingham after speaking to the media about his employer's unsafe coronavirus response. On the day of Colin's visit, people there were visibly aware of the risks essential workers are taking to keep society functioning. 

His first stop gave him a chance to catch up with a dear friend, Nora, and witness a nurse's resiliency first hand by chatting with her next-door neighbor, Mathew, on his day off. The tension between the whitewashed hero celebration narrative and the harsh realities health professionals and all essential workers are living is not lost on us. Because of that, we are glad Mathew still had a reservoir of humor that day. We hope he is staying safe.

"I ate a whole cake today, and a whole cake yesterday." 
—Mathew

Nora, who lives next door with her son Rowan, shared some aspects of her daily life that had helped ground her after an initial bout of fear when physical distancing began. The sense of sacredness she feels walking the forest and the trails around Bellingham, and noticing plant life unfurling gently even in the street, are sustaining. The same is true of her partner's relational intelligence. She hopes the change of pace in social life from not being obsessively driven by productivity will stick around when we fully adjust away from physical distancing. 

“I have been so grateful to have an understanding and patient partner as my emotional wellbeing does roller coaster loops [...] during this time. It has been [challenging] to feel cut off from friends, but I've [started] to contextualize what is happening, what my options are for connection”.
—Nora

Colin's mini Bellingham portrait tour continued in a few different neighborhoods. Here is what each person there had to say.

"[I remember] who gave me my last hug and my last kiss on the cheek. They are like still moments in time. I [...] live alone here with my dogs."

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"I don't want this time spent to be forgotten, [and] art helps to remind us of those times."
—Faith in York Hood

"I hope that people will continue to reach out and support each other. Not just our loved ones, but strangers and the community as well."
—Ida,  
Ida and Tim in Sunnyland 

"What I've chosen to prioritize after getting used to the free time has been the most surprising. I call my family much more than before. There's less to report in each phone call, but I somehow feel more connected to all of them than I have felt since moving away."
—Erin in Western Washington University