Julio Baré received the first sign that life as he knew it was over when he heard a seemingly mundane message broadcast over his school’s intercom system last March.
“When the pandemic situation started, I was getting ready to move to the next class when the principal sent a message on the speakers at exactly 12 p.m. saying the open house we were supposed to have with parents was canceled,” said the substitute math teacher and musician. “At that moment, I knew my life was going to be changing.”
Baré, a Lynn resident, was used to keeping busy. Before COVID-19, he filled his days teaching classes at Breed Middle School while giving live performances at El Sarape Restaurant in Weymouth in the evenings and on weekends.
Then the coronavirus pandemic swept through the North Shore. Restaurants and live performance venues closed indefinitely, schools scrambled to get virtual learning platforms up and running, and Baré was left to make sense of his isolated “new normal.”
Not used to so much free time, Baré, 66, said he spent those first few months at home glued to the TV. He rarely left the house, even to purchase necessities.
“It was two months in the dark,” he said. “I was home watching the news every single minute. At some point, my home became a refuge because … my life was turned around in a way that I didn’t (recognize) it.”
It wasn’t until he noticed he had started gaining weight that Baré made the decision to change his habits. He picked up classes tutoring local college students and started to give virtual live music performances through Facebook in an attempt to gain some sense of normalcy.
One year later, however, with the first dose of the Moderna vaccine under his belt, Baré is eagerly anticipating a return to the life he once knew.
“Things are going to start going back to normal,” he said. “I think it’s going to feel really good when I can do a performance for people in front of me.”
Baré’s wife, Betty Ann Girard Baré, who was at the couple’s Florida home at the time pandemic restrictions were implemented, fared slightly better than her husband during the uncertain early days of the virus. An avid quilter since 2008, she said she immediately got to work sewing blankets for a number of causes.
Having something to do gave her a sense of purpose and helped pass the time.
“They take a while to make, but it depends on how intricate the design is,” said Baré, 69. “All I did at home was sew and walk the block with my dog.”
Since the start of the pandemic, Baré estimates she’s sewn a total of 30 quilts. She donates her creations to various animal charities, as well as Quilts of Valor, a nonprofit organization that provides quilts to veterans.
“I could sit outside and I wasn’t near anybody, so it was really easy here, but I feel bad for people who don’t have a hobby,” she said. “I know people who are really depressed about (the situation) because they can’t get out and they can’t see their friends. It’s hard on people.”
Not everyone has found the last year to be painfully isolating, however. In fact, some say the change in routine and so much time at home has actually brought their households closer.
Laura Cole, 44, of Saugus, said her two sons, Patrick, 15, and Shawn, 14, have managed to thrive in a less structured environment and have settled easily into remote schooling. Their new routine has worked out so well, the family has no plans to return to in-person learning at Saugus schools any time soon.
“They got used to it real quick,” Cole said. “(When my husband and I) decided we would stay fully remote, my 10th grader was actually more than happy about it because he didn’t want to go back to the building.”
Cole, a paralegal, said she sensed early on that the district would remain remote longer than the two weeks initially projected by school officials, so as schools and businesses began to shut down last March, she quickly made sure her home office was up and running.
Now, with everyone in the household remote for the foreseeable future, the family has grown used to a comfortable new schedule.
“I don’t know if other parents want their kids out of the house, but we’ve been fine. They’re not driving us crazy,” Cole said. “I make sure they’re logged on and they’re in their room with no distractions, and then I start whatever I need to do for work for the day.
“When it’s lunchtime, they’re like, ‘hey, I’m hungry,’ so we’ll make lunch or get something delivered.
“It’s just our normal day now.”
Elyse Carmosino can be reached at [email protected].