It was a sign of the times. It was a devil of a time. It was an unprecedented time. The COVID-19 virus’s emergence and global expansion struck from seemingly out of nowhere. It was the deadliest disease event in American history. Not since the 1918 global influenza pandemic had a highly infectious airborne pathogen of COVID-19's magnitude swept the world, causing panic and leaving in its wake unparalleled loss of life.

There is no minimizing the horrors of living through that time period. In America, states faced mandatory lockdowns in an effort to prevent the virus’s spread. Individuals were forced to adapt to an isolating existence of fear and doubt which included learning how to acquire and ration necessities for their daily living while maintaining the integrity of their health.