Keeping calm and carrying on: Profound changes sink in as Ohio adjusts to coronavirus

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Just past noon Friday, the calls for take-out orders began coming into the small, fragrant kitchen of Mom’s Pierogies off Memphis Avenue.

Church fish fries, along with so many other places where folks gather and find community, have been closed because of the coronavirus, and residents were avoiding the crowds at restaurant chains.

Janet Vedda and her staff began churning out orders. They’d expected to be busy on a Friday during Lent and had prepared more than 1,000 filled dumplings, but the stream of residents in and out of the shop spoke to the fears of a region.

“People aren’t here long,” Vedada said. “They come in and grab their orders and go.”

Some ate their meals in their cars.

With Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s unprecedented declaration Thursday that banned most gatherings of 100 or more people, our new, and in some ways, profoundly different life, has begun to sink in.

It’s life in a not-yet-but-could-be-infected coronavirus limbo, with everyone wondering where we’ll end up.

Uncertainty is the worst part. A newspaper columnist in Italy, a country currently under a national lockdown with more than 15,000 coronavirus cases and 1,000 deaths, wrote: “The threat is invisible, unknown, insidious . . . and therefore it is impossible to defend against. Life as we know it no longer exists.”

And we must face what’s before us.

“We’re asking people to take on a new mindset,” said Terry Allan, Cuyahoga County Board of Health commissioner.

Ohio had 26 confirmed cases, as of Saturday. The CDC on Friday reported the nation had 1,629 cases, with 41 deaths.

Advice from health officials on preventing the coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, is coming fast and furious.

We’ve never been so conscious of hand-washing since kindergarten, and if we go out, we’re supposed to keep a prescribed “social distance” of 6 feet from other people to reduce the risk of inhaling droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

Watch what you touch out there. Doorknobs. Handrails. Elevator buttons. Handshakes are out. Hugs, too. Even at funerals.

When Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority workers learned last week that quarantined employees would be eligible for a paid two-week leave, William H. Nix, head of the 1,400-member Amalgamated Transit Union Local 268, which includes RTA bus and train operators and janitors, said the hardest part was not being able to shake the hands of members over this victory.

“You got to the do the [elbow] bump,” he said they told him.

But we haven’t forgotten our neighbors.

At University Settlement in Slavic Village, the sound of rustling grocery bags filled a room as staff and community members packed 300 grocery bags Friday with bars of Lever and Irish Spring soaps, personal-sized hand sanitizer bottles, first-aid kits and green plastic “It takes a village” bracelets.

Fliers slipped into the bags gave picture-based instructions on hand-washing and other tips to protect from the coronavirus to those who may not be connected to the endless stream of news.

The Settlement routinely does community outreach throughout the neighborhood to chat with residents about their needs. But with “social distancing” recommendations, they decided instead to deliver some hard-to-find provisions.

“We want people to know ‘We see you and we know you’ even if we can’t talk to you,” Earl Pike, executive director, said.

Rocket Mortgage

A runner makes his way down Huron Rd., near Rocket Mortgage Field House May 12, 2020. The Mid American Conference basketball championships were cancelled Thursday, after one day, due to the coronavirus pandemic. Gus Chan, the Plain Dealer The Plain DealerThe Plain Dealer

Schools, sporting events, entertainment venues and even some churches have been shuttered. Medical facilities and polling places, open for Tuesday’s election, escaped the directive.

Parents and students in the Cleveland school district said they agree with closing schools for three weeks as a necessary step for public safety.

Amir Wilson, a junior at the John Hay High School campus, said he was a little worried about teachers, noting with a grin that “some of them are a little bit older.”

But, he added: “But they’re not that old, so I wasn’t too worried.”

Olivet Institutional Baptist in Cleveland and Grace Church in Middleburg Heights are among many that will livestream services today and in weekends to come.

Cleveland’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, which would have been its 175th, was canceled by its organizers.

“We got some backlash from people on social media that we were making too much of all this and that people will end up going into bars instead of congregating on the street for the parade,” said John O’Brien, a representative of the United Irish Societies of Greater Cleveland, a nonprofit organization that organizes the event. “It’s sad,” he said, “[But] the health of people is more important than a parade.”

Playhouse Square

Joe LaRocca, a musician for the musical Jesus Christ Superstar, pauses after receiving notice that the remainder of the three-week performance of Jesus Christ Superstar has been cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic. LaRocca, from Boston, said all the musicians have been sent home. Gus Chan, the Plain Dealer The Plain DealerThe Plain Dealer

Cancellation of all shows at Playhouse Square left many performers stunned, including Mary Beth Ions, a local freelance violinist who for years has played in the lobby of Playhouse Square as crowds head into the various theaters.

Ions was one 22 local string players hired to join the 11-piece band traveling with the 50th anniversary tour of “Jesus Christ Superstar” floating above the audience from the sky boxes at Connor Palace.

“Usually we’re buried in the pit out of sight,” she said. “It was an unprecedented use of the orchestra, where we really felt part of the action.”

On Thursday, after two performances that Ions dubs “magical” and “glorious” the show was canceled.

“It was surreal,” Ions said. “In a million years, if you had to write down, ‘Reasons I wouldn’t be playing this week’s show,’ it would NEVER be this. But when you look out there and you see all 2,300 people, all smushed together, you can understand. You want people to be alive to enjoy the theater in the future.”

Among the other local theatrical cancellations was the 44th annual Cleveland International Film Festival, scheduled for to start March 25. On Thursday, a day after the cancellation was announced, Marcie Goldman, festival executive director, said “I told my staff, ‘It’s like we are grieving. We are in mourning now. And we have to give ourselves time to do that.”

On Friday, the staff was back at work and starting on next year’s festival at Playhouse Square — a lot earlier than they thought, Goodman said.

If you’re planning to shop for “batten down the hatches” supplies, you might be too late. Empty shelves and shortages from “disaster shopping” have resulted in frustration and, sometimes, humor. A sign outside the Paradise Island bar on Babbitt Road in Euclid promised “Free Toilet Paper.”

At Giant Eagle in Parma, long lines, 10-deep, wound down the aisles Thursday evening as parents and others who had just learned the schools would be closed for three weeks stocked up on canned and frozen foods, milk, bread, anti-bacterial wipes — and more than a little beer, it seemed.

A worker named Vicky, a single parent, who did not want to give her last name, fretted about what she would do with her son next week when she came to work. “At least my mother can help. A lot of single parents here don’t have any family,” she noted, as she donned a fresh pair of latex gloves and kept scanning.

Two weeks ago, customers waited as long as an hour to get a haircut at Dee’z 21st Century Barbershop in Brunswick Hills. On Thursday, the shop was nearly empty.

“There is no one here; there’s nobody in this plaza,” said Amanda Biery, a barber at Dee’z. “People are scared, and I’m scared, too. It’s a record low. Business just nosedived.”

Other businesses made adjustments to stay open and serve those customers who came in.

Mitchell’s Homemade Ice Cream, a Cleveland classic, closed off its seating and became a take-out business.

Workers continued to give customers samples, but staffers placed tiny spoons in a small dish and slid it to customers, avoiding contact.

Life goes on for others, as they tend to necessities.

At a 24-hour laundromat at Memphis and Ridge Road in Brooklyn, local resident Brady Bradberry plunked quarters into a washer. He was alone, amid discarded dryer sheets and an empty bottle of fabric softener, at a time when the business typically is busy.

Coronavirus wedding

Jeff Logan,39, and Katie Weber (soon-to-be Logan) rehearsed for their Saturday wedding at the Ariel Pearl Center on Broadview Road late Friday after noon. The Old Brooklyn said they understood the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic but were trying to preserve the joy of their special moment. There was just more hand sanitizer and fewer hugs.Rachel Dissell

At the Ariel Pearl Center on Broadview Road, the late afternoon sun sparkled through chandeliers that hung from the vaulted plasterwork ceiling Friday as Katie Weber, Jeff Logan and their wedding party to rehearse.

The Old Brooklyn couple — Katie in a simple white dress with a flare and Jeff in a blue velour suit jacket and paisley shirt — was trying to stay inside their wedding bubble amid the national emergency.

Earlier in the week they started getting texts from friends and family asking if their ceremony Saturday was canceled because of the coronavirus ban on large gatherings.

“We were like ‘No’ it’s paid for,’ ” said Katie, 32 and a real estate attorney, who bunkered down at home last week, consuming a steady diet of Disney films to avoid pandemic news.

And it would be silly to postpone the Pi-Day themed nuptials, joked Jeff, 39, who teaches math at Buckeye Junior High in Medina.

But there were adjustments. Hand sanitizer bottles at the bar. A few less hugs and cheek-kissing from relatives.

“We are just staying calm, staying positive,” said Jeff, who had hustled to get lesson plans finished.

Plain Dealer reporters Brian Albrecht, Gregory Burnett, John Caniglia, Rachel Dissell, Lynn Ischay, Laura DeMarco, Olivera Perkins, John Petkovic, Andrea Simakis and Julie E. Washington contributed to this story.

Read more coronavirus coverage:

Cleveland Clinic identifies ‘handful’ of positive coronavirus cases

Hospitals to offer drive-thru coronavirus testing

Clinic, UH to begin in-house coronavirus testing

Clinic limits visiting students, residents

If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.