Date Night at the Virtual Museum
With thousands of miles separating them, one couple turned to the internet to go on virtual dates of museum exhibitions
Last October, my husband accepted his dream job in the Bay Area to fabricate the exterior of a well-known art museum. He left while I stayed behind in New York with our toddler. Splitting our family wasn’t ideal, but it seemed like a short-term necessity. We couldn’t afford to be a one-income family. I’d keep my job as a teacher in New York, and we’d see each other every few weeks until we both had work on the same coast.
We made it work. My son and I spent my semester break with my husband; he flew to New York at the end of February for a weekend. We’d planned to visit him again over spring break, and he’d come for a long weekend in April to celebrate our son’s second birthday. We’d live together in the summer. During our time apart, we’d use FaceTime to catch up.
Yet even before the pandemic, keeping in touch over FaceTime had been an emotionally overwhelming social distance lockdown in its own strange way. Our son was always having some kind of first my husband would miss in our weeks apart: He said “I love you” unprompted, he cleared his plate after dinner, he learned to sing The Rainbow Connection, and my husband missed it all. Still…
