Community Corner

GA Coronavirus: How North Fulton Neighbors Are Responding

Neighbors in North Fulton are easing into their "new normal" of self-quarantine, working and school from home, and what businesses are open.

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NORTH FULTON, GA — Neighbors around North Fulton are starting their second week of self-quarantine after most schools, businesses and community amenities shut down due to the coronavirus.

Patch asked readers to tell us how local families are coping with schools being closed. This includes families homeschooling, college students now working from home the rest of the semester, or teachers.

In Roswell, Michaelene Mastrocola and their family of two daughters, in fifth and seventh grades, are "doing just fine."

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"Like everyone else with kids, we are navigating distance learning and watching teachers doing live or recorded instructions," Mastrocola said. "We are uploading homework documents to Google classroom. We are having breakfast as a family and enjoying reading the Bible and discussing how we can better live according to its wisdom. We watched church live-streaming on Sunday! What a blessing to have time to do this as we are not rushing out the door."

The Mastrocola family is keeping up with friends and family on Facebook while finding new ways to stay entertained at home.

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"The schedule suggestions and over the top humor around toilet paper and 'quarantinis' have been helpful for morale," Mastrocola said. "We’re only leaving the house for essential errands and ordering online when possible. We’ve decided to form a family with two neighbors. If we get sick, we’ll get sick together. But we are not participating in play dates outside that small circle of friends. I have time to actually cook and explore Instant Pot recipes. I finally found time to sew the holes in my favorite pants. My husband hasn’t skipped a beat as he worked 14 hours in the office upstairs yesterday. I imagine that - he didn’t have to waste two hours in traffic! We are going to save a bundle on gas. The kids are playing a lot of soccer, feeding the geese and sliding down our hill in the mud."

The worst part is the unknown of how long a quarantine will last, and if loved ones will be effected.

"We miss our elderly grandparents who live across town," Mastrocola said. "We miss school. We miss soccer and tennis and the camaraderie that comes with team sports. We are hopeful that by some miracle the spring musical (The Lion King Jr.) at our school happens on May 7 as the kids and parent volunteers and teachers have already put many hours into preparations.

But you know, we’re OK. We have each other, we have cell phones and computers to keep us connected, and for now we have our health. We believe that God isn’t surprised or afraid of this health crisis, and we trust that good things always come out of bad things. We pray for a treatment to reduce the effects of the virus and in the meantime, we wait."

Steve Mace in Alpharetta said it can be overwhelming to keep up with now homeschooling his 13-year-old son in middle school, and 16-year-old daughter in high school, on top of any uncertainty the coronavirus has created.

"I have no doubt the intentions are good, the effort sincere," Mace said. "As recent transplants from Michigan, we love the school system here in caparison to Michigan. We are not ungrateful, if you will? We are people, like millions of people, worried about a lot of things: 'Adultsy' own jobs. Incomes. Paying bills. Feeding our kids. A simple errand turning in a virus. Telling our kids, 'No, you can't go to the mall/your friend's/out with a group/ to baseball...'

So, with our kids being like 'usual' teens, we are finding it difficult to get them into their rooms, to their desks, and be locked down for hours, in a home that they are more or less locked down in - when they simply can't grasp the entire picture as it is. When we, as adults, can't grasp it ourselves. None of us were here in 1918. It's all very new.

The schools can attempt to infuse normalcy into this uncertain time. Yes, education is important. We get it. What they cannot do is assume that we all can make it normal at home. This is not 'normal'. And the kids know it isn't. But they don't understand it. The schools are helping, and not helping all at the same time."

Others in the community want to help in any way they can.

Bob Rorke said he "continues to be impressed on how the board of education leadership have proactively addressed this serious health emergency issue."

"In addition, the board of education have been very supportive of the employees from a financial standpoint and it is much appreciated. My only 'regret' is I am unable to assist or help the students (that ride my bus) and their parents as they too have been impacted greatly from this crisis."

Amy Abney has children who attend schools Riverwood High School, Ridgeview Middle School, and Heards Ferry Elementary in Sandy Springs, agrees and said she is awestruck by the response the public schools have had to the pandemic and resulting school closure.

"Teachers and administrators in our local schools have mobilized quickly to distribute meals and technology devices to those in need as well as to create and distribute online lesson plans so that students may carry on at home," Abney said. "Their communications have been timely, efficient, positive, and reassuring. Riverwood has even planned a 'virtual' spirit week. I am so grateful for the care our local schools have shown students in a time of great uncertainty."

Patch also asked which local restaurants are still open, offering curbside pick up or delivery options.

Readers submitted restaurants still open:

If you know of restaurants and businesses still open, add it in the comments or on the Neighbor Posts above.

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