It's hard to summarize this experience in a paragraph, but I'd like to thank Amanda Macchia Photography for the opportunity to capture a snapshot of our family during this incredible moment in history. So much continues to change, challenge, and evolve everyday - in the micro insular world of our family of 4 (which has been fortunate enough to include both sets of grandparents cycling through lately) - and in the macro landscape of our global community. We hope that this movement will not just be a moment, and that the collective energy will propel our nation forward in ways that are long overdue. We are privileged and fortunate to have only just recently moved into our beautiful new home right before the pandemic hit; to have space and resources for our boys to build insect playgrounds in the backyard, keep tadpoles; and tend to our garden. E (16 months) learned to walk just a few days into the start of the quarantine, and now he runs after his big brother M (4.5) who learned how to ride a pedal bike for the first time a few weeks ago. We've had beautiful moments of gifted presence with our boys during this tender time in their childhood. And we've also had challenging moments trying to navigate all the moving pieces of looking after our children while working full-time, and making efforts to stay engaged in the bigger picture of what is happening in our world right now. As a trauma-specialist (Emily) and a civics education non-profit manager (Josh) we have always been committed to doing our small part to try and impact positive change in the world and contribute to individual and collective healing and progress. At first, the constriction of what was taken away and made smaller, and the fear of the unknown felt really hard. And it still does. There are layers of grief in what is being experienced individually, collectively, and systemically right now - and the grief and anxiety we as a family are experiencing comes from a place of privilege that is not lost on us. But in the midst of the "hard" there have also been moments of ease and letting go - of expectations to "do it all" or of how it "should be done," which has freed up space for a much more organic, intuitive way of living, parenting, and being in community. The work is far far from over. And being able to hold the light and the darkness, the pain and the hope, is vital right now. For all the learning and changing and evolving that is yet to come. Thank you again, Amanda, for this opportunity to share in community.

My name is Marisa (@mris__) and I live with my sister (@julia_levinson) and my dog Mac. I’m a nurse in the ICU at Boston Children’s Hospital and my sister actually started a new job as a sexual health counselor at Somerville High School the day before the school closed! While Mac was initially annoyed to have us around more, he’s warmed up to it and has been enjoying lots of walks (except when it’s raining, then he refuses to walk). We’re both feeling lucky that we have our jobs and our health and each other to get through this :)

We’re trying our best to stay active and sane with a 1 year old and 3 year old jumping around the house while Wes runs his business from home. And on the days that I go to work on the frontlines as a hospitalist NP at MGH, Wes takes over since we don’t have preschool or the grandparents babysitting any longer. The hardest time is when I come home from work and can’t touch the boys until I’ve showered and changed- and the little one cries the whole time until I come out and can hold him. Our 3 year old has also asked that I stop talking about the hospital- which has been helpful for all of us. We save discussions about the pandemic for after they’ve gone to bed, and when they are around, we’re present in the moment with them. It’s a welcome relief after the sadness and anxiety that I feel at work. At home, the boys love digging for worms, scootering through puddles, and finally getting screen time which we previously had avoided. Life is so different now, but we still have so much to be grateful for. We are lucky to have our health, meaningful work, and friends and family who are supporting us from a distance.

Andrea and Ally moved in to this particular front porch in August 2018! Ally's grad program has gone remote during this time; her cohort is doing lots of zoom lunches. Andrea is a hospital social worker who is now figuring out how to do teletherapy at home on an old personal computer. Together their quarantine days and nights have included a lot of delicious home cooked meals, tons of snuggling from the very happy cat, and game nights.

I’m 7 months pregnant with our first child and a nurse at MGH, and my husband Paul, who works in health policy research for MassHealth, is now working from home.

Being a nurse during all of this has been strange to say the least, but my work friends are so supportive and they're doing everything they can to keep me and baby safe and sound. Quite the story to tell the baby some day.

We really, really miss our friends, and I'm hoping we don't have to introduce them to our newborn via Zoom. On the bright side, quarantine means we're doing a lot of nesting and watching plenty of infant 101 youtube videos. And getting lots of sleep while we still can.

Lisa (she/her)
Tyler (he/him)
J (any pronouns, most often she/her or they/them)

Our biggest challenge is balancing full time remote work with giving J the attention and care they require. We take turns being the primary caregiver, but because I've been working on projects related to COVID-19 for MGH, sometimes Tyler has to drop what he is doing so my work can be prioritized. Overall, we're proud of how strong our partnership has been and although it's a tough time, it has been special spending all this time together.

For fun and to help support local businesses, all three of us have loved getting creative by cooking with delicious ingredients from our local producers. We've been getting produce and dairy from the Safe Supply Market at Bow Market, a fish share from Hooked/Red's Best, and deliveries of bread and treats from Iggy's and Q's Nuts. J helps in the kitchen by scooping, pouring, stirring, and taste testing!

Alexandra (she/her) 80s music is the best
H (he/him) can name all construction vehicles (3)
S (she/her) has impressive TikTok moves (14)

Their smiles bring joy on the challenging days. It's not easy working from home with a toddler who just wants to ride the T and go to the playground and a teen who just wants to hang with her friends. With every week that passes my daughter worries her last year of middle school won't be as she expected. That she won't have an 8th grade graduation. That she won't feel prepared for High School in the fall. I want that so badly for her. Yet, I want her and all of us to be safe. Juggling it all isn't easy, and we're all doing our best. We're being honest with each other, and that's really important. I'm also continuing my community work with Building Equity Bridges to make Cambridge Public Schools an anti-racist district, which is no easy feat.

I feel very very blessed for all we have and that we are safe and healthy. There are hard days, but we've grown stronger as a family, and being together has shown me how much I needed to slow down and practice more mindfulness techniques. Virtual yoga, family dance parties, and meditation have helped keep me grounded and present. So has remembering this is all temporary.

And I need to say something about how HUMOR has played a huge part in my life especially now.....

We are grad students at MIT and have lived here with four other roommates for about a year and a half. Though we're used to working from home, and generally feel really lucky about our situation, all the uncertainty of the first few weeks of March was scary and difficult. We had to cancel a big trip with our families that we had been looking forward to, and have unfortunately had two weddings postponed/ cancelled. We're trying to balance cooking from home and supporting some of our favorite local spots by ordering takeout or buying gift cards. We celebrated my "quarantine" birthday with takeout from Giulia. We've been trying to go on long (socially distant) walks every day, making dinner with/ for our roommates, playing Overcooked, and watching some great TV (John Mulaney, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and--yes--Tiger King!).

“This is NOT how I thought maternity leave was going to go!”

Kaitlin and her cat, Three, are adjusting to this new life. Three is enjoying having more hooman time and Kaitlin is offering online yoga classes while studying education policy full time at Zoom University formerly known as Harvard!

Meet Jessica, Zac, their toddler Juniper, and two pups Lyla and Luna.

“Juniper keeps us pretty busy and teaches us a lot about being present and finding the joy in all situations, even this one. Her joy of choice is currently somersaults on the bed, reading her favorite books over and over, searching for acorns, making art, and dance parties!”

We met these three lovely bakers as a part of the MAMAS (Mutual Aid Medford + Somerville) a group of local community members banding together to organize aid across the cities. Aimee, Kim, and Jake are baking loafs of bread weekly and donating all proceeds to the Boston Restaurant Relief Fund! We got an amazing loaf of sourdough from them. You can reach them at boston.breadventure@gmail.com

It’s just the two of us — and our three cats — sharing a one-bedroom apartment. Both Eddie and I have mostly worked from home for several years now, so that part wasn’t a big adjustment.

We miss going to our favorite neighborhood spots, like Christopher’s, Toad, and Newtowne Grille. We miss seeing the people who work there and worry about how they’re coping with this. We miss going out to see bands at some of the area’s amazing smaller venues, and we hope they make it through this.

This year we’ve decided to use a bit of our yard space to plant some veggies, and we’ve already got a few things started indoors. For now we are taking things one day at a time and looking forward to spending more time outdoors as the weather warms.

It’s just me and my 10 year old son, Declan. I am a hairstylist and my salon that I’ve worked at for the past 21 years is closed until who knows when. I had to apply for unemployment. Trying to stay positive and enjoy the down time. Kitchen dance parties have kept us sane. My sons teachers have been amazing and they are working so hard to keep the kids connected. ❤️

As you can probably tell by the ridiculousness of these pics, I haven't had much interaction with the outside world lately. I need to make sure I get outside more, and this was a great and fun excuse to do so! I luckily am able to work from home, alongside my boyfriend, but we finished Tiger King so now what?? Guess it's time to play flute again, (sorry neighbors) but at least burritos haven't been canceled yet. - Meg

As a musician and food writer, respectiavely, Joel and Rachel’s lives have been turned on their heads BUT the two are making the most of things by cooking all the foods at home. Seriously… follow them on instagram.

Flowers bring me joy. They bring the world joy. I miss the joy I am able to share with the world through flowers. This is my family's business and the only thing I know is spreading happiness through flowers. Not being able to do that, especially now when the world could really use happiness, hurts me.

What am I doing to get through this... "staying grounded so I can help other people in my life" "long walks with my dog and dancing in my kitchen every night.

Tara (she/her) of Makia Rising is a Breathwork Healing Facilitator and Massage Therapist. Tara believes that healing starts from a positive frame of mind, fully honing in on the belief that we are not broken.

“This human experience can be an intense one. Most of us are carrying around tension, pain, fear and outdated beliefs tucked deep in our bodies and nervous systems. Starting the process of letting go and integrating, sometimes just requires loving care of our body, plus the willingness to keep an open heart and mind while looking deep inside ourselves. Lately I’ve been focused on staying grounded so I can help other people in my life,” which, for Tara, means long walks with her dog and dancing in the kitchen every night!

Divya (on the right) is a freelance TV producer out of NYC who was actually on a project at the San Diego Zoo in CA when the COVID-19 pandemic hit hard and shut production down. Instead of going to NYC she decided (and Mom kind of insisted) that she come straight to Somerville and hole up there.

"[My Mom's] happy to have the company and said she would have been worried about me in NYC so it's nice to have me around! She mostly works from home anyway, with some travel, so her routine hasn't changed all that much, and we've been hiking and taking walks as much as possible to keep ourselves sane.

While my mom works from home, I am rotating between a puzzle, the internet, and a book all day, and practicing my baking skills... however in this strange and, for some, horrible situation, it's been nice to have the gift of some quality time with my mom."

Becky (she/her)
Lauren (she/her)
Icarus (he/him)

We’re best friends who moved in together just two weeks before starting self-quarantine. It’s been a trip to say the least! We’ve been taking Icarus out for walks in the yard recently. We think he’s getting sick of us being in HIS house 24/7.

Like true extroverts, Lauren and Judy are enjoying the extra time together but are struggling with being at home so much. Especially because they can’t do what they love most when stuck at home - host dinner parties! Their three dogs, on the other hand, have kind of won the lottery and are super thrilled to have their parents home with them 24/7.

Maya + Sam are both considered essential workers during Massachusetts COVID-19 lockdown. Maya is a social worker and Sam is a Nurse (so please send them all a big THANK YOU right now!). In terms of how they’re doing? All thumbs up and smiles from over there! The two are remaining positive and are spending their down time planning their 2021 wedding and hanging with their chickens.

Sage and Tim have been married for 3 years and live with their fluffy 13 year old cat, Dante. Sage is a municipal employee and Tim works in hospitality. To keep sane during their time off, these two have been reading, learning languages on Duolingo and watching lots of movies.

Super grateful we paid extra to go for the porch. I had no idea how essential it would become as a safe place to get some fresh air when we did. And, as always, grateful for my little family.

How kids (and parents) do social distancing on Somerville’s Electric Avenue.

The Kleins are making things work during these strange times. Isabelle is a high school student at Cambridge Rindge and Latin and Henry is in middle school at Vassal Lane Upper School. Their teachers have been amazing at shifting to continue teaching remotely and the kids have stepped it up too. Dan is working from the guest room. Leah writes a blog and posts @CityLivingBoston. They are all keeping our eyes on the silver linings.

“Thanks to our wonderful City - from restaurants and chefs to teachers and neighbors - we are doing well so far. It helps that the weather has been beautiful, so getting out for socially distanced walks has been one way to stay grounded and calm. I think things will get harder as this is just the beginning, but we are taking things day by day. I have lots of projects from cooking and gardening to crafting and movie watching that will keep us distracted. I am worried about small businesses and those who are out of work. I try to give a little each day from sending a tip via Venmo to a hairstylist “just because” to donating to the Museum of Science. I wish I could do more, but I believe every little bit helps.”

#Breckthedog and @jont14 have been isolation buddies throughout all of this. Breck seems to be enjoying extra snuggle time, but is also confused about why I ignore him a lot from 9-5. To compensate, he comes over for regular "head in lap" sessions and sometimes decides to fully climb into my lap during video calls. With most of my family back in Denver, I'm very thankful to have Breck as my companion....although, he is not great at holding a conversation - it always seems pretty 1-sided. Wishing everyone love, health, happiness, and renewed perspective on what is important.

We are very lucky that our family is expanding in these difficult times. Our nanny, Dani and her dog Russell have moved in with us since the start of the governors "stay at home" order. She watches our son while my husband and I continue to work full time from home. We celebrated her birthday yesterday! We are also blessed that I am 6 months pregnant, due with our daughter in July. Looking forward to her arrival and the happy times ahead makes the stress melt away!

We’ve been finding small ways to mix up our routine, like experimenting with different popcorn seasoning and walking through different parts of our neighborhood in search of quieter streets. And I’ve adapted my email newsletter, @inboundbos, to feature all of the incredible online events that folks around Boston are running virtually.

I am the insect overlord!

As a writer, Connor has been struggling to remain creative amidst everything that’s going on, even though he had a story he wrote before self-isolation go live at a really awesome new literary magazine.

“But my wife Sally just turned in the final draft of her PhD dissertation yesterday. It’s such an incredible act of faith to create something like that right now - faith that we will get through this, and that other things will matter again. It was hard to have too much of a celebration, but we did order some pasta and a bottle of wine for takeout from Juliet last night.”

Yves and I met while working in the Democratic Republic of Congo with Doctors Without Borders. We worked together in Chad, Sudan and Haiti before returning to Boston to start our family. Yves works in public health and I am a midwife - and we're both putting to use all of those skills we learned in other epidemics to use during this emergency. We are so thankful to live in this wonderful community, and to support our neighbors through this hard time.

We are 10,513 miles away from the city we consider home, and all our wonderful friends and family that are in it. Usually it’s only a flight away, but since flights across the pacific have pretty much stopped, many of our family can’t come and visit the newest member. It has never felt further away than it does right now. Luckily for us Mum got here in early March, and since she is “stuck” here for a while she will get to spend lots of quality time with her granddaughter.

We just got married in late March, one week into isolation. We have the City Clerk to thank for that — we were planning on a civil ceremony anyway, so when the government buildings shut down to the public he performed the ceremony for us outside of City Hall. Our families watched online. The silver lining was that we were able to have more people at the ceremony (including our dog), and of, course, that we were able to get married.

We are very lucky that our family is expanding in these difficult times. Our nanny, Dani and her dog Russell have moved in with us since the start of the governors "stay at home" order. She watches our son while my husband and I continue to work full time from home. We celebrated her birthday yesterday! We are also blessed that I am 6 months pregnant, due with our daughter in July. Looking forward to her arrival and the happy times ahead makes the stress melt away!

We've noticed little parks and fun architectural details around Somerville that we've never noticed before, when we go for walks in the neighborhood. Between periodic fresh air, Schitt's Creek and meeting our neighbor's new puppy, we're trying to stay sane and not dwell on the stress of planning our November wedding.

We have been turning our living room into a full time day care center and kindergarten classroom. We have a cardboard box playhouse and a "cafe". We try to get outside once a day to "scoot" around the neighborhood looking for bears. We have some in our window at our house - there are also dragons and bunnies. My husband is working from home in the basement so this will be a good excuse for all of us to make an attempt to be presentable. We are on week 4 at home now (I think I've last track). We started a few days earlier than the public school closures.

Life at home full time is so different for everyone, and different in different ways for each of us even though we are all under the same roof! That is quite an adjustment. Lots of wine and yoga for me.

Claire and I are doing well. We have each other, our three cats, and a happy sourdough starter. Our cats, Ariadne, Hobbes, & Josephine, all love being photographed and so wish this session was happening in our home instead of out on the front porch. With us being home all the time, our cats have never been happier. We’re both history professors and all three enjoy making cameos on Zoom while we teach.

Things might be crazy and unpredictable right now, but at least you can count on some things: 🌷eventually spring will arrive (even in Massachusetts) and the neighborhood chihuahua loves to pose for portraits (we don’t have a dog).

I’m Gonzalo, but people call me Gonz. I work in brand/creative marketing as a freelance creative director and full time as a Sr. video producer for a tech company.

I’m originally from Caracas, Venezuela and I had my 5 year anniversary in the states last week (quarantine anniversary, yay!). I feel that growing up in Venezuela trained me for this, haha.

I’m fortunate that I’m still working and staying creative, but it’s been a bit harsh to keep depression and anxiety away. So, I’m trying to use this time to be able to read more, play more music, workout more and try to stay connected with friends and family.

We've all been home since March 12, and most of the time we're okay. We're coping pretty well by keeping to a routine, giving each other space, and taking time to do things together (a little bit of fighting, but more laughing). We make sure to appreciate what we have, rather than what we're missing (as we like to say "focus on the doughnut, not the hole"). So we're taking one day at a time, finding activities to do together, and giving each other time to be apart. We are thinking of all the amazing people who are risking their lives for us, but also those who are making us laugh with their funny videos, and those like you who are making people so happy for a good cause. Thank you again, Amanda (and your team!). It was a great few minutes and I hope we get a chance to connect again!

My kids really miss their usual city lives- riding the T, going to restaurants and museums and seeing friends at the playground. But they also love going for hikes so we are thankful we can still do that while being socially distant.

This North Cambridge couple find joy in their furry and non-furry bundles of love, in trying to stay connected with loved ones, and in hearing stories of acts of kindness, creativity, and generosity of people everywhere.

We're trying to find joy in the little things: extra time to go on walks with our son every day and trying new baking projects.

Maggie is a PhD student, trying to finish her dissertation and get ready to defend (remotely) in May. While this spring is certainly not the way she pictured wrapping up her graduate work, she’s reminding herself that a “good” dissertation is a “done” dissertation! Pete is an after school teacher and is exploring the whole new world of “remote learning” while teaching coding to kids online. He says it has been really nice to reconnect with his students in the online format. Together, they’re taking a lot of long walks and exploring all the side streets and hidden parks in Somerville. After living here for 6 years, it’s amazing how many cool houses and blocks they’ve never noticed!

The biggest thing that sparks joy in my life right now besides my family and friends of course, is the instagram account @goodnews_movement. Seeing all the good that is going on in the world right now give me hope for the future. I suggest everyone follow that account and stop watching the news. I guarantee you will have a much better day.

Like every other family we are just trying to stay healthy and sane. Our days consist of many card games, arts and crafts ,and lots of snacks . All from the comforts of our pjs. Our kiddos are too young to fully understand what is really going on and we are thankful for that. Please say a prayer for my husband (@cambridgafiredepartment) and our first responders that they all stay healthy and safe.

Zack (he, @zeegor) and I (Stefanie, she, @saborntreger) are a chemist and a librarian, respectively, which are kind of weird jobs to do from home, but we're making it work! We're sort of homebodies already, but we had been gearing up for a very busy spring season of live concerts, operas, and comedy shows - all of which were cancelled. We gave ourselves like a day to mope about it all, but since then we've been making a point to keep from just sinking into the couch every night. We both love to cook, so we've been trying more complicated recipes and getting back into baking. We do puzzles together, put on records, take frequent dance breaks. Workout time is sacred. Our apartment has never been cleaner! But importantly, we're also being extra kind and accommodating to each other - because sometimes one of us just needs to be sad, or be alone, or have a mindless-TV night. We're really honing our listening skills and adapting to each other's needs in the moment.

We are Jason, Tamar, Noah (14) and Ruthie (10), and two kittens, Mookie and Joy, who aren’t pictured as they are indoor cats and going outside might terrify them! The kittens are great companions while distancing and are loving the fact that there is always someone around to play with them or feed them! One of the hard things about physical distancing has been absorbing all of the things our kids are missing - the daily routine of school, plays and performances for Ruthie; and for Noah his final eighth grade Spring at school and, maybe even harder, his final baseball season. We did find a lot of joy in our extended family's first-ever Zoom seder this year, and for me there was a lot of comfort in making the matzoh balls, gefilte fish, brisket, and even in sitting down with our family to eat the same meal here in Somerville as in NYC and DC.

We’ve been surviving quarantine for the last four weeks with a mix of home schooling, working from home, and family fun! While it’s stressful for us all, we’re trying to remember to take it all in - we’ve never spent so much time together as a family (between work and school), and it’s nice to just slow things down. The weather is improving daily so we can’t wait to clock some more time outside!!! The boys miss school, but I think they’re getting used to Mom and Dad being home.

Will is originally from here and I am from Mexico. We meet in Boston 20 years ago and recently moved back to Cambridge after three years living in the midwest. We love being back, even in these crazy conditions. Cambridge is definitely home. As we mentioned, for the past 5 years we have commissioned a portrait of us to celebrate our anniversary. This is our small way to support artists and create a lasting memory for ourselves. We are happy to include this portrait of us in self-isolation to our story