Should I keep paying the cleaning lady if she can’t come?

Dear Abbys,

I told my cleaning lady not to come today (my daughter uses the same one, and she is deciding what to do, as the woman uses the subway). I will pay her for today, and possibly the next time. But how long do we have to keep this up? I was thinking of splitting the cost and paying her half. 

The other piece of this is that I need someone to clean the house, change my bed linens. And soon there is Pesach. How will us elderly people deal with that without help?

Signed,

Menorah, New York City

Dear Menorah,

Thank you for being a mensch! Yes, absolutely continue paying your cleaning lady. I say, pay her for as long as it is financially feasible for you. People who work hourly, in low-paying jobs — who are often undocumented — are the most vulnerable to financial ruin in a situation like this, so the best thing you can do is continue paying her. If you can’t afford the full amount, give whatever you can.

Who’s to blame for missing Doritos?

Dear Abbys,

 As soon as I heard that patient No. 2 was an Orthodox Jew, my heart leapt in fear, worried that the Jews would be blamed for an outbreak in NYC. Same feeling I had when the planes brought down the towers — we’ll be blamed for this. Is this rational or is this historical DNA rearing its ugly face?

 Signed,

PTSD Flareup in Sullivan County, N.Y.

Dear PTSD Flareup,

Ah, the Blame Game. When you lose too many tiles to play Scrabble, don’t have the mental capacity for Old Maid, and just give up on pretending to like Twister, the Blame Game is a sure crowd-pleaser. Played by all ages and levels of expertise in any language, and no pegs or operating instructions to lose! (Batteries always included.)

Time is going too fast and too slow all at once

Dear Abbys, 

Help! I’m supposed to be working from home and also homeschooling and also disinfecting our home and checking in on my parents, making what’s left of our food last, etc. etc. and I can’t keep track of any of it. Time seems confusing and irrelevant and going too fast and too slow all at once. What do I do?

Signed,

Michelle, Los Angeles

Dear Michelle,

We feel your pain. In  the past two days we’ve accused small people who live in the same domicile as we do of leaving the garbage-can open, only to realize the smell was because we still hadn’t showered. 

It seems so hard to believe that we’ve only been #socialdistancing for a couple of weeks. It reminds one of us when her mother died in the middle of July and she walked outside the hospital and couldn’t fathom how the sun was still so high in the sky.

Send in your questions to dearabbys@forward.com