Listen to my 88-year-old neighbor Christine Hughes in Jamaica, Queens, New York share a little about what her life was life during the pandemic. In a nutshell: she stayed inside her house. Her daughter took her grocery shopping locally. Christine’s mother (Sarah Ryan) was from Montserrat and her father (Carl Ellis) was from St. Croix. Christine has two older sisters in their 90s: one in Arizona and one in Queens. They are all in good health with children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

This is my first in-person interview, which I recorded for both my oral history project and for The Zip Code Memory Project. I recorded it on my iPhone in the lobby of my apartment building that I grew up in Queens, New York. Christine and I are both wearing masks.