How To “Meet Up” With Family Members Who Don’t Stay Together

Jul 27, 2020   |   Chloe Mak

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Covid-19 has changed the way people interact with one another. Amid the restrictions imposed by governments, technology has surpassed physical barriers and helped people to maintain ties with their loved ones. For me, I took the chance to experiment with different internet platforms to interact with my extended family, and was pleasantly surprised that it was almost as seamless as meeting them in real life.

The early part of circuit breaker happened to coincide with my mother’s birthday, so we used Skype to call my extended family to act as “backup singers” for her birthday song. Even though we were totally not in sync and off-key, I could still feel the strong love and deep bonds we shared despite being geographically apart. We were all secure knowing that this circuit breaker would eventually end, and that our patience would be rewarded when we gather together under the same roof again someday.

Since Mothers’ Day was around the corner, we ordered popiah, a traditional dish using GrabFood, and had it delivered to their place as a surprise. Popiah is one of my grandmother’s favourite snacks and I have fond memories of her teaching me how to make and wrap it properly at the large wooden table at her place. Sending popiah to her was a reversal of roles in a way, because instead of her cooking for us, we “cooked” up this idea so that even if we couldn’t go to a restaurant like we usually do, she could still enjoy her favourite food without spending time painstakingly preparing the ingredients for just a few people. While calling them over lunch using my computer, we laughed and caught up with each other, as if it were totally normal to see the whole family crammed in a tiny screen and choking on the surprisingly spicy chilli. Food transcends all boundaries, physical or virtual, and fond memories were forged over our virtual dining table.

Lastly, during the May holidays, I allocated some time to “meet” my cousins on Houseparty, an app that allows people to video call and play games simultaneously. One game we played was “Chips and Guac”. This involves matching a given stimulus with one that we had in our personal deck of cards, with the most hilarious association winning the round. Boisterous laughter sounded from both ends as we came up with all sorts of weird and wacky combinations that were not limited to sleeping in fishnets to cure headaches, and downing alcohol from a trophy. It was a break from the usual Telegram matches we played as I could see their smiles of delight and shouts of joy, and not be reduced to a bunch of black-and-white “HAHAHAH” texts as our sole expression of how happy we were to still be able to make memories together.

It was a unique and interesting experience, but nothing beats meeting them in the flesh after the circuit breaker was lifted. Some things really never change, like how good a warm hug from my grandmother feels, or the happiness that comes from being able to take pizza from the same pizza box as my cousins again. However, circuit breaker was proof of human adaptability to circumstances and how relationships could still be maintained despite the lack of physical meetups. Even though I still prefer meeting my extended family face-to-face, I’ve learnt a lot from the circuit breaker period and wouldn’t discount doing another online meet up with them soon.