Today, March 11, officially marks one year since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

And when that inauspicious declaration was made, few people knew exactly what it would mean, or what we could expect in the weeks and months to come. This milestone marks a very significant event in human history and The Associated Press illustrated the struggle our world has endured with a look back. As they stated, no one has been untouched.

Not the Michigan woman who awoke one morning, her wife dead by her side. Not the domestic worker in Mozambique, her livelihood threatened by the virus. Not the North Carolina mother who struggled to keep her business and her family going amid rising anti-Asian ugliness. Not the sixth-grader, exiled from the classroom in the blink of an eye.

It happened a year ago. “I expected to go back after that week,” said Darelyn Maldonado, now 12. “I didn’t think that it would take years.”

Few could foresee the long road ahead or the many ways in which they would suffer — the deaths and agonies of millions, the ruined economies, the disrupted lives and near-universal loneliness and isolation.

A year later, some are dreaming of a return to normal, thanks to vaccines that seemed to materialize as if by magic. Others live in places where the magic seems to be reserved for wealthier worlds.

At the same time, people are looking back at where they were when they first understood how drastically life would change.

On March 11, 2020, confirmed cases of COVID-19 stood at 125,000, and reported deaths stood at fewer than 5,000. Today, 117 million people are confirmed to have been infected, and according to Johns Hopkins, more than 2.6 million people have died.

On that day, Italy closed shops and restaurants after locking down in the face of 10,000 reported infections. The NBA suspended its season, and Tom Hanks, filming a movie in Australia, announced he was infected.

That was only the beginning of what spiraled into a year-long nightmare. Handfuls of customers rushed to stores to hoard whatever items they could get their hands on (especially toilet paper). People bickered back and forth in grocery stores about their right to choose when it came to wearing a mask for the good of public safety. Families were divided, some even within their own households, for fear of spreading the virus. And even as we hit the one year mark, much of “normal life” has become anything but — and some have suffered far worse than others.

Latoria Glenn-Carr lost her wife and her mother within weeks of each other. She joined a survivor’s group for people who lost loved ones to COVID. They meet weekly on Zoom, text each other and help with the grieving process. Glenn-Carr knows she will dread birthdays and Mother’s Days that will go uncelebrated.

“Nothing goes back to the way it was” she said.

A year from now, on March 11, 2022, Maldonado pictures herself doing all the things she missed in this endless pandemic year.

“Playing outside with friends, playing softball with the dog,” she said. “Being with the people that I love most.”

We hope for those that have lost loved ones throughout this difficult time are somehow able to find some sense of peace and happiness after all of this is over. We hope that families are able to come back together, stronger than they were before. And we hope that everyone continues to do their part to contribute to the greater good. We can get through this together — we have already made it this far.

— The Mining Journal