Blanca Frappier lives in Minnesota, USA, where she is an audio book artist and mother to three young children.

In this postcard, recorded on 26 April, Blanca reflects on how Coronavirus has interrupted her year of saying “yes” which was about finding herself again beyond motherhood.

She also recounts how the effects of living through undiagnosed COVID-19 triggered memories of her impoverished childhood, and subsequently deepened her understanding of the decisions mothers make.

Minnesota, despite the rising death toll from COVID-19, is one of the first US states agitating to relax lockdown in the face of 26.5m people countrywide registering for unemployment benefits.

The US is still seeing a sharp increase in cases of the virus with over 965,000 confirmed and 55,000 deaths as of 27th April. Testing in Minnesota is increasing but contact tracing, a basic requirement for dealing with COVID-19, remains patchy. 

Minnesota Post: https://www.minnpost.com/glean/2020/04/deaths-from-covid-19-in-minnesota-double-in-a-week/

Al Jazeera: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/states-set-ease-coronavirus-lockdown-measures-200426202117171.html

Star Tribune: https://www.startribune.com/as-covid-19-spreads-across-minnesota-contact-tracers-are-in-demand/569954702/