Days without Name: On Time in the Time of Coronavirus

During the first wave of the pandemic in April 2020, novelist and editor Heidi Pitlor reflected on her perception of time while quarantining with her teenaged twins near Boston. In her personal essay “Days Without Name: On Time in the Time of Coronavirus,” she describes how the pandemic’s shutdowns rendered time shapeless, with moments and days blending into one another. Working from home, Pitlor keenly felt the disorientation of life without structure. To counter this, she and her family instituted a weekly ritual of celebrating Fridays, marking the passage of time and breaking the monotony. This small tradition offered solace, providing something to anticipate and alleviating the sense of endless repetition. It also created a sense of stability in a moment when both daily life and the future felt undefined. For Pitlor, building these distinctions was vital, helping her face the uncertainty of a prolonged pandemic while reminding her and her children that even the coronavirus would eventually pass.