I just submitted this essay, 'Coping with Covid' to a non-profit for whom I volunteer

I survived the 2020 Covid era by making new electronic aquaintances. Through NextDoor, Facebook, my phone and website, I advertised for sale the honey my bees made and the daylilies that proliferated over the past 10 -15 years in my yard. The honey sold locally (as it should) so I would text peeps that I was delivering their order and they would often greet me from their porch.
 
The daylilies sold nationwide as there is a network of daylily lovers all over the world. I met through email a lady in Alabama for whom I bartered bee supplies for ‘Entwined in the Vine’, a daylily that was the only one missing from her club’s Stout Medal winner garden. She also noticed I had a cultivar named ‘Rosabelle Van Valkenburgh’ on my website and told me that Rosabelle had been a mentor to her and many others and had just passed away in her 90's. She had my condolences and I thanked her - how would I ever have known that, otherwise?

I emailed a man out West on a Sunday night last summer to find out if he wanted me to wait a few weeks before shipping so we could find out which direction the wildfire was going since it was 30 miles from him. He said, “What wildfire?” It had just started that afternoon.
 
I snail mailed about 30 older Daylily Journals to Edna who told me she wouldn’t be buying any daylilies this year as her hubby had a stroke and couldn’t garden anymore. But he'd be delighted to look at the gorgeous photos!
 
Carol, a grower in Ohio, sent me two of her daylily introductions to grow and to judge how they’d do in the South. Scott in Tennessee is sending me a book of his photos.  Milton, a customer in Rhode Island, recommended me to his daughter in Tennessee. We synchronized shipping so her daylilies would arrive the day before he arrived so they could plant them together. I dropped a pound of honey in the box for Milton – he sent me a thank you note!
 
I could go on and on with 20 more stories but you get the picture. For an introvert like me, electronic media has been a wonderfully invigorating exercise in connecting with wonderful peeps who share my passions.
 
Rita Buehner, Class of 2013