The family of one epidemiologist plans to celebrate Thanksgiving in a garage, with tables 10 feet apart and the doors rolled up. Another epidemiologist’s family is forgoing a traditional meal for an outdoor hot cider toast with neighbors. A third is dining in an outdoor tent, with a heater, humidifier and air purifier running. And,…
Lela Rose’s dining table can accommodate dozens of guests and is a marvel of social engineering. One part rises from the floor to create a low seating area Japanese-style. Another part drops from the ceiling on cables to accommodate more people. Those two sections meet a third table which can be extended with leaves, and…
Mary Kate Vollmer and Evan Sloan didn’t intend to cause a ruckus with their Nov. 2 wedding in the automotive aisle of Blain’s Farm & Fleet, a country store in Montgomery, Ill. They were just trying to bring Mr. Sloan’s 90-year-old, coronavirus-stricken grandmother, Beth Stanley, some peace. “Ever since March, when we moved in together,…
Aliza Aber and Jonathan Browning had a marathon of a first date. After connecting on OkCupid in March 2017, they met in the afternoon at San Francisco’s de Young museum, shared an Italian dinner and then played miniature golf at an indoor course, Urban Putt. Things couldn’t have been going any better, until Mr. Browning…
A hurricane ruined Yoelvis Valdez’s plans to propose to Anabel Santeliz. And their wedding was first postponed because of a cancer diagnosis, then because of the coronavirus. But when two friends came to the rescue, the couple finally got their wedding in a backyard tent drenched in pink roses and candlelight. Mr. Valdez, 32, and…
Kelly Ellen Mulrow and Kevin Matthew Quinn like clockwork recited the opening lines of the Latin textbook “Ecce Romani I” during their first date in May 2017 at Ampersand, a cocktail bar in the Gramercy neighborhood of Manhattan. “She walked in the door with a huge smile,” said Mr. Quinn, who had connected with her…
Christopher McGuire was back in his native New York in October 2017, and, much like his hometown Yankees, bracing for a Game 7 showdown with the visiting Houston Astros. “I was living and working in Washington at that time,” said Mr. McGuire, 31, a foreign affairs officer at the State Department. “For years, I was…
On one of the first days they spent together, Kristen Larson and Allan Breed practiced social distancing — though that term was not yet in the popular lexicon. The year was 2015. Ms. Larson and Mr. Breed were at Harpers Ferry, W. Va., preparing to set off on a river tubing trip with a group…
After hearing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, Amanda Sayre Caskey and Skeeter Barker held each other on their couch in Oakland, Calif., and through tears, made the decision to marry. “Under a new Supreme Court, we know we might lose marriage equality,” Ms. Caskey said. Justice Ginsburg’s death also prompted a call from Ms. Caskey’s…
Deep into his 60s, my father’s biceps threatened to rip his shirt sleeves when he reached to scratch his head. For decades, he supported my mother, brother and me by killing cattle with a mallet in one of the slaughterhouses that gave Manhattan’s now-fashionable meatpacking district its name. For my ninth birthday in 1938, he…