A New Orleans Easter in quarantine

In New Orleans, families like the Williams family are celebrating Easter Sunday in isolation amid COVID-19. We heard worry, loss and hope among African American families in the greater New Orleans area who will celebrate at home this year.

By Erron Thomas

The Williams family, from left, Landon, Landon Jr., Shondra, Logan and Maici, stand outside their home in Harvey, La. on Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020. All photos were taken at a social distance of at least 6 feet. (Photo by Brandon Joseph)

For many families in New Orleans, Easter is a time for joyous celebration — a time to get dressed up, go to church, gather with family, sing and dance, and boil crawfish. This year, amid a COVID-19 crisis that has put a halt to all public gatherings, families marked the day at home in isolation. The Williams family — Dr. Shondra and Landon Williams, and their children, Maici, 20; Logan, 16; and Landon Jr., 16 — reflect on Easter in quarantine, loss and how the health crisis has changed their lives. The Williams family lives in Harvey, La., and worships at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans East.

How has the coronavirus affected how you worship?

Maici: We do online service like this past Sunday. We did it all together and took communion here in our house while our pastor was reading the creed of the church. It’s just remote.

Logan: Yeah, we had grape juice and crackers.

How does your family typically celebrate Easter?

Shondra: We start the morning off with church. That’s the very first thing that we would normally do and no different this Sunday. We’ll be having Easter service in our bedrooms.

Logan: We also all gather at one family member’s house and cook and fellowship.

What are you going to miss about not being able to go to church?

Logan: The outfits. You know how you have your Easter Sunday outfit?

Landon Jr.: Dressing up as a family has always been a tradition for us.

Shondra: It’s just, you know, a sign of respect. It’s tradition, as Landon says. You know, since the kids were babies, infants, we’ve always done that. I can remember dressing them up almost usually always in the same color, all white or maybe a seersucker.

How are you finding comfort in your faith right now?

Landon: Well, being Christians, we just know that everything is in God’s control and our faith teaches us that God is going to take care of everything exactly how it needs to be taken care of. We just lost our grandmother and one of her favorite scriptures was the Serenity Prayer. Basically where you just accept the things that you can control and those that you cannot control, and you have the wisdom to understand that you can’t control them. That’s pretty much where we are and that’s how our faith leads us.

Landon Williams stands in front of his family’s Harvey, La., home, dressed in his Easter Sunday best on April 12, 2020, a kerchief covering his face. He now wears a face covering whenever he is outside to protect from COVID-19 transmission. (Photo by Brandon Joseph)

Do you have any other traditions that are being derailed?

Shondra: [Easter] is typically spent with extended family. Our grandmother Landon’s mom, who’s 84 years old, we would have loved to have spent time with her, but because we’re socially distant and because the risk of being close to her at this point in time, it’s not a good option.

What worries you about this crisis?

Landon Jr.: I’m just worried about the time. I want to get back out on the baseball field.

Logan: Yeah. I’m worried about seeing my friends and spending my birthday in quarantine.

Landon: I guess the thing that bothers me, that concerns me most about it is the uncertainty of it. You can’t see it, smell it, taste it or feel it. So how do you avoid it? That’s the biggest concern for me. Just the uncertainty and the mysteriousness of it… The stealthiness, it’s just mind boggling. That kind of concerns me the most. You have all these cautionary measures and you still don’t know if that’s enough. That’s the main concern for me.

Maici: How long it’s going to take, because it kind of depends on people’s social distance and staying in their homes, which is hard for some people and some people deliberately choose to not do it. It’s kind of like things can continue to get worse and therefore increasing the amount of time that we have to be in isolation. That’s one of the main things that worries me.

Another thing is how, they were recently saying that Black and Latino people are more at risk. I wonder how that’s going to impact our communities and what it looks like after.

The Williams family in their Easter Sunday outfits, April 12, 2020. (Photo by Brandon Joseph)

Erron Thomas is a freshman at the University of New Orleans and a Spring 2020 Lede New Orleans Fellow.