‘It’s put the future on hold’: A year of shutdown has changed how we work, play and navigate a pandemic-altered world

Shortly after the shutdown began, her daughter hosted a friend for a sleepover — via a video call on her iPad, which she rested on a pillow next to her own head. As the months passed, one of her sons began starting the school day with a blanket over his head, unable to face yet another day in front of his computer. “I feel like we lost a year of our lives,” said Jenn Ambrosiano-Reedholm, a mother of three in Cockeysville. “And it feels extra-long.” It was March 12 last year that Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan ordered public schools to close in four days, just the start of a shutdown that would also shutter bars, restaurants, movie theaters, malls, houses of worship and other gathering places to help curtail the spread of the then-now coronavirus.