Travelling internationally is out of the question for Canadians as COVID-19 continues to keep people isolated and mainly indoors. That was sad news for one Barrie city councillor and his loved ones as they deal with the death of the family matriarch.
On March 19, Coun. Sergio Morales, who represents Ward 9 in Barrie's south end, posted on Facebook that his grandmother had died. Fanny Solorzano, 87, passed away from cancer in her home city of Bogotá, Colombia, which is almost 4,500 kilometres from Barrie.
Understandably, Morales’s mother, who is also named Fanny Solorzano, was grief-stricken and wanted to get home to see her mom. But with the health crisis the world is facing due to the coronavirus, strict travel bans that wouldn’t allow that.
“It was hard not to be able to visit Bogotá, and who knows when we will be able to visit,” Solorzano told BarrieToday.
Right now, telephone and Skype are helping Solorzano stay connected to family in Colombia and she had previously got back to see them every three to five years. In 2018, Solorzano’s father died and she went back more frequently then.
Solorzano and her husband moved to Canada in 2000 to, as she told BarrieToday, “give Sergio a better future.”
Morales, who is now 26 years old, said he was very upset to receive the news of his grandmother’s death. While his parents worked hard to make a better life for their family, it was his grandmother who often cared for him.
“Like many young parents can relate to, my parents were young professionals in the 1990s in Bogotá,” Morales said. “My grandma looked after me as they worked on their careers. I spent most of my early childhood with her.”
Along with spending time with his family here in Barrie, Morales has been dealing with the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic as a city councillor, everything from normal day-to-day city business to his role as interim chair for the Downtown Barrie Business Improvement Association (BIA).
“It’s been a big change. A lot of routine committee meetings have been cancelled, but I’m spending my days communicating with residents who are afraid,” Morales said. “I’ve been conveying credible information that changes by the hour, and working with (BIA executive director) Kelly McKenna on how we can support the businesses.
"Short-term planning of weeks and months is now hours and days," he added.
Despite work, daily life and a pandemic creating havoc in the world, Solorzano said there are things like family that need attention, no matter what is going on around you.
“Make the time while you have the option to do so," she said.
