LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:
At this point in the pandemic, many of us are suffering - and how - from Zoom fatigue - many, not all. WNYC's Gwynne Hogan checked in with a group of senior citizens who switch their weekly gathering to Zoom at the start of the pandemic, and now they say they're closer than ever.
GWYNNE HOGAN, BYLINE: Last March, I visited a senior center in Manhattan. At that point in a pandemic, we were flying blind. We were elbow-bumping instead of shaking hands but not wearing masks. I rode my bike to the DOROT Center with a lump in my throat, fearing maybe I was an unknowing vector of the virus.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Singing) To reach.
Guys, we're going to sing...
HOGAN: But I got there, and there was a crowd of coughing college kids on tour with their a cappella group, performing to the small crowd of seniors.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENTS: (Singing) To reach the unreachable star.
HOGAN: I popped in to a memoir writing class.
(SOUNDBITE OF KNOCKING)
HOGAN: It was a group of about a dozen women. They'd been meeting weekly for a couple of years at that point. I arrived right as the director of the center, Mark Meridy, broke the news. The center was closing. It was March 11, 2020.
MARK MERIDY: We need to suspend our on-site programming here at DOROT for a period of time.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Starting when?
MERIDY: Starting today.
HOGAN: The news was a blow for the group, especially for Yvonne Rossetti.
YVONNE ROSSETTI: I think depression is a killer.
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: Yes.
ROSSETTI: And certainly, many of us are here because maybe we battle depression, or this place is a lifeboat.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: It is a lifeboat.
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: Yes.
HOGAN: Over the course of the pandemic, I wondered how these women were doing - if they got sick, if they got better, if they were experiencing that loneliness they'd spoken so fearfully of when I met them that day. I reached back out, and they invited me to their weekly class on Zoom.
Hello, everyone.
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: Hi.
HOGAN: Adellar Greenhill told me about her recollection of that day.
ADELLAR GREENHILL: Before we knew about Zoom and what was going to happen, it was like one of those feelings in the pit of your stomach.
HOGAN: The women got some coaching on how to log in to Zoom, and the group started reconvening regularly online.
GREENHILL: There's an intimacy to Zoom that we never would have anticipated, I don't think.
HOGAN: Christine Graf says they were already used to sharing personal details in their writing.
CHRISTINE GRAF: And then to meet again in our own homes, it felt good.
HOGAN: Many of them did get COVID, and they all survived. But Marsha Cohen says one member of the memoir group got sick with cancer.
MARSHA COHEN: She said, I need help finishing my memoir. I'm getting this memoir published.
HOGAN: She did get it published right before her death. The group was able to celebrate her life over Zoom.
COHEN: We're making that connection every single week, which is great because a lot of us live alone. And, you know, otherwise, we don't connect.
SIPRA ROY: We are not disconnected by social distance - rather, I will say, more connected.
HOGAN: That was Sipra Roy. I particularly wanted to know what Yvonne Rossetti felt a year into this technological experiment. She says she's on board, too.
ROSSETTI: Zoom created a paradigm shift for loneliness. It was like life is normal with this and so deep and so rich with this.
HOGAN: Before I left the session, Wendy Handler, who works for the senior center, wanted to add something too.
WENDY HANDLER: This group was supposed to end many times along the way.
(LAUGHTER)
HANDLER: We're so thrilled that you're still here and that this group means as much to you today, if not more, than it did when we met in person.
HOGAN: They say they're hoping to convene in the real world someday soon, hopefully in Central Park on a sunny day. For NPR News, I'm Gwynne Hogan in New York. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.