Life has never been easy for single moms. The pandemic made it harder.
From left, Myron Hodges Jr., then 3, Moneisha Bryan, and Kayden Hodges, then 4, head home after hanging out at a park in Manchester. Going to parks is a big part of her family life, partially because they can have fun for free. | photo by: Yehyun Kim :: ctmirror.org
Editor’s Note: This is one of four stories published today examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on single mothers. Photographer Yehyun Kim and reporters with the CT Mirror tracked the lives of the three women profiled in these stories over the last nine months, interviewing and photographing them as they experienced lockdown with their children and as the state began to open up last month.
Around four or five years ago, people had very solid ideas about what the idea of ‘working from home’ meant. Usually, it was synonymous with ‘dossing’, ‘laptop in bed’ or ‘working, but not really’. It wasn’t unusual for friends of mine to ring the doorbell of my home unannounced and demand that we go for a walk, or for a coffee, or just have a hang on my sofa because… well, I could. Those walks would be long, leisurely and languid, with my friends little the wiser about how much they were actually eating into my working life. In the end, my pals and I had to implement a daytime ban. “You wouldn’t like it if I walked into your office and wanted to chill out there, would you?” I would say. “Because from 9am to 5am, this is pretty much my place of work, and not much else.”