'A different world': How COVID's arrival 5 years ago changed these people's lives

If you think back five years, what do you remember? 

It's been that long since much of Canada — including Ontario — shut down on March 13, 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Only days before, Ottawa had confirmed its first official COVID-19 case, but health officials now believe he wasn't actually the first.

For some, the last five years may seem like a bit of blur. But for others, the pandemic — especially the first few weeks and months — are locked in their memories.

Here's what some local people remember. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Brianne Quarrell 

What do you remember about the early days of COVID-19?

"The early days are weird because everything shut down.... I was hospitalized March 30 and I was intubated on March 31. So, the big shutdowns, I missed it all. When I woke up, it was a different world for me."

What did the pandemic mean for you?

"I think more than anything it was eye-opening ... and I remember when I was admitted and I was being taken to ICU, there were many people from long-term care that were in the rooms beside me and I just kept thinking to myself —because I'd heard the stories and I was like — 'Oh my God, like some of these people aren't going to make it.' And I was like, 'Oh crap, I'm one of these people.'"

"It's given me a chance to slow down and really re-evaluate my life and what I want and what I do.... I want to spend more time with my family and I'm trying to be more present."

"These five years are kind of a gift because who knows what could have happened?"

What do you not want people to forget about the past five years?

"I just want them to not forget that as much as they didn't want to, the government did what they thought they had to do.

"I get it. It wasn't easy and it wasn't pleasant, but it was a necessary evil because I do think it helped."

"I am so, so grateful for the care that I received. If it wasn't for the quick thinking and actions of everyone, I don't know if I'd be here and so I want people to remember that it was hard and people sacrificed a lot to be at the hospital with other people's family members, and they sacrificed their own family."

"They took the brunt of everything, those front-line workers, and just, they're incredible."

Sudesh Gurung

What do you remember about the early days of COVID?

"Mostly I was working in a community that [was] disproportionately affected, and a lot of people were sick. So I just remember, yeah, it was a tough time for everyone."

"I remember a lot of myths being circulated in the communities, whether it's through WhatsApp or social media, a lot of things that were not true."

"People were not sure whether they should believe what's on the news or what's on social media."

What did the pandemic mean for you?

"When I was talking with families, I found that they were not sure what kind of media they should trust. At one point, it was like, 'COVID will be gone in summer, if the weather gets better, it will be gone, so don't worry.' At the same time, people were [saying], 'No, we need to wear masks.'"

"I was going door to door, sharing information from Ottawa Public Health and encouraging families to believe what's coming from public health [rather] than WhatsApp."

"I just remember families contacting me, that they didn't know what to do, whether they should go for testing and where to go, who to talk to, and whether they should go to hospital … just, I think, chaos in my community."

What was your biggest takeaway?

"The effectiveness of being in the community when we're providing service or sharing the information ... so we are working with the families and community face to face. So there was some kind of trust as well. That was effective. We also got to know what was lacking."

"Then, I also got COVID within six months and it was a really tough time, and I got my second [round of] COVID after I got vaccinated, so I also got to see how it improves."

What's one thing to remember about what we've gone through the past five years?

"Even though we had that tough situation during COVID, we still need to value the work of individuals, specifically front-line workers, whether it's a vaccine or testing centre, those front-line workers worked hard and I really appreciate them."

Dr. Gerald Evans  

What do you remember about the early days of COVID?

"I remember an escalating worry, concern and fear that we were facing a pandemic when we first started hearing reports."

"Then suddenly realizing that there were so many things that were different about this virus than what we saw with influenza, and so in a way we were kind of operating in a vacuum and we were trying to learn and act all at the same time."

"The reports that were coming out of various jurisdictions around the world including in Europe and Italy, in the United States and New York, where there were so many deaths that they had refrigerated morgues in trucks outside to just handle the number of bodies, and I think for those of us who are working to take care of patients here in Canada, our fear was, are we going to see the exact same thing that they're seeing elsewhere in the world?"

"We did actually pretty well in Canada. If you look at the statistics, and you look at the per capita infection rate and mortality rate, other than long-term care, where we could be criticized a little bit for an excessive mortality rate, places like the United States were way above us and they were sort of the epicentre of, 'Oh, stop worrying about it, survival of the fittest and see you later.'"

What has the pandemic meant for you in the last five years?

"I've been an infectious disease doctor for 35 years and I never sort of envisaged in the later years of my life as an academic [infectious disease] doctor that I was going to face a pandemic.

"We were worried that somehow we might get something very terribly wrong and if we did, the repercussions would be personally very, very tough. And I took my responsibility really quite seriously, but I lived in worry that somehow maybe I'd missed something, maybe I'd make a recommendation or vote for a recommendation that wasn't the wisest.

"And so I think all of us ... were really worried that we're going to make a mistake."

What would you want people to not forget?

"I think people have forgotten how deadly this virus was in the early years, and that's really what led to so many stringent measures."

"People were lauding in many ways health-care workers, the nurses, the doctors and all the other people who are continuing to work not just in hospitals but in long-term care, and now all of a sudden we've got this thing where nobody thinks that we did this out of the kindness of our hearts and our professionalism."

"Trying to do good science on the fly is really, really challenging."

Callie Thiyagarajah

What do you remember about the early days of COVID?

"Getting married, becoming a mom. All those big life changes definitely happened in the past few years, so it's been a major time of disruption. Both good and bad."

What did you think about in the first few months?

"So much disruption on a personal level with the wedding planning. I think we planned just like six different versions of our wedding and it was just getting so exhausting."

"My husband's family is Hindu and I was raised Catholic, so we were trying to really blend the different religions and traditions, and really honour our guests and bring everybody together."

"We were supposed to have over 200 people, and we had less than 10."

"You see it even [in] the wedding pictures, everyone standing apart. And it's interesting to have those time stamps, as long as they don't become digital dust."

What have you learned in the last five years?

"Allowing yourself to grieve. It's not just reserved for the loss of a loved one. It's giving yourself space to grieve the loss of your hopes, your expectations, especially when you put your heart and soul into something."

"Even in chaos, love and joy persist. I got married, I became a mother. Difficult times don't mean there's a total absence of joy."

What did the pandemic mean to you?

"Being resilient, sort of being able to ... go with the flow, and we can't control everything, but we control our reaction and our response. So just really just sort of managing to the degree possible how I can do that."

Biggest takeaways from the pandemic?

"Love isn't lost. Like, even in chaos, there's joy ... and just really trying to centre yourself in that chaos."

Musashi Takara

Takara is a public servant who says living through the pandemic made him more empathetic.

What do you remember about the early days of COVID?

"Very surreal.… I honestly didn't think it was going to be that big of a deal."

"Honestly, the past five years both feel like they went by in the snap of a finger, but it also feels like so long ago I can't even remember."

"Honestly, it just felt like you were living in the scene of a movie."

What did the pandemic mean for you?

"I kind of just continued on like it was 2019 as soon as vaccinations were rolled out."

"I'm definitely more aware of like, how I treat people … treating people with respect, being nice."

What was your biggest takeaway from the pandemic?

"Taking the mindset of, you never really know what someone is going through and taking it to its farthest end, and just trying to be as nice as possible."