Editor’s note: At the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic’s arrival in the Upper Valley, we asked Valley News readers to reflect on the last 12 months and to share their thoughts.

Last year started out like a normal year for us. We were hoping it would be better than 2019, as we had lost our young nephew in May of that year. So we were happy to move on.

Our first real inkling that life was going to change in 2020 was in mid-March when the ski area we skied at closed. Then things happened quickly. I was furloughed from my job of 23 years at Wild Apple Graphics in Woodstock. This was a complete surprise and shock. As of March 30, I had nowhere to go and nothing to do. I called it my “practice retirement.” It was such a change from being very busy all the time and stressed that there weren’t enough hours in the day. It was the first time in my life that I was not working, and my first time collecting unemployment.

Luckily, it was a nice spring and we started doing outdoor projects. I dove into my gardens. I made lists of things to get done and was loving being outside doing physical work every day. I cleaned out garden beds and got them ready to plant when it was warm enough. We tilled a vegetable garden.

The unemployment insurance relieved us of some of the financial burden. Then, in mid-July, I got the call telling me that I wasn’t furloughed anymore, I was laid off. I really did not see this coming and it was hard. I was hoping that things would get better and I would be able to go back to work.

One of the most difficult things about this time was the lack of purpose in my life. Monday was the toughest day of the week as I was used to going to work. Now I had to figure out what to do with my life. I was offered time with a career counselor, which was so beneficial. He was very helpful in getting me to focus on what my strengths and weaknesses were and how to put those on paper in a resume — for the first time in 23 years.

After one of my visits with the career counselor, my husband asked me how it went and I burst into tears. We were at the stage where I had to start looking and applying for jobs. I told him I did not want to have “a job.” My sister, Betsy, had been helping me with ideas about what to do next, and when I told her this she said, “Why don’t you start your own business? What would you want to do?”

Well, it didn’t take me any time at all to come up with an idea that I had always thought about: organizing! She helped me develop a business plan, create a website and logo, and Yellow House Organizing was created.

I was so excited and happy with the thought of having my own business. It was scary when I launched it in October, but then calls started to come in. Unfortunately, by the time I started to set up appointments, the virus was taking off and the governor asked people not to go into other people’s homes. I have a list of potential clients for when things get better, and I am starting to get optimistic now that people are getting the vaccine.

Right now I am using my organizing skills to work on my own house. I try to snowshoe or ski every day and have been thankful for the great snow we have had this year. I look forward to the time change in March, seeing family and friends again, and am planning my gardens. My mom is in an assisted living facility in Massachusetts. I saw her in February and then briefly in October, but she has now had her two shots, so we are hoping that visits will be allowed soon.

It will be good to get past the one-year anniversary of when all of this first started. My life has changed for the better in many ways, and I can’t wait to start being busy with Yellow House Organizing.

Patty Hasson lives in Barnard.