Listen to Black American fashion designer Susan Higgins from Rochester, New York talk about living alone in Dallas, Texas during the Covid-19 pandemic and going on a journey across the U.S.A. in late 2021. Being immune compromised, she stayed home alone in Dallas in 2020 during the pandemic. She also worried about possibly exposing family members to the virus. She wore a mask and gloves the first time she went grocery-shopping during the pandemic. After that first trip, a friend of hers went grocery shopping for her and she ultimately began to order groceries through delivery services. The company she was working for before she went on medical-leave went into Chapter-11 bankruptcy during the pandemic and laid off 1,000+ employees.
In July of 2021 Susan left her apartment in Dallas and went on a journey across the United States. Prior to the pandemic she was an avid traveler and she visited family often. She decided to keep her car to travel to American cities rather than fly or ride Uber, which became expensive during the pandemic. In the summer of 2021 Susan drove to Houston (Texas), New Orleans (Louisiana), Atlanta (Georgia), Isle of Le Palms and Columbia (South Carolina), North Carolina, D.C.-Baltimore-Marlyand Area, Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), New York City, and New Jersey. She flew to Costa Rica for a friend’s 40th birthday party and then extended her stay at a vegan hotel in Costa Rica. After Costa Rica she returned to New Jersey and drove to her hometown Rochester, New York. In 2021 she moved to Florida to stay with her mom and to recuperate from being hospitalized.
She enjoyed listening to DJ D-Nice’s live Instagram dance-music parties during her isolation, which helped alleviate the anxiety of following the news of the thousands of deaths from Covid-19. She formed a quarantine-crew in the summer of 2021 in Dallas and they enjoyed their company in their backyards and their outdoor pools. None of them caught Covid-19.
She experienced a lot of loss in 2020 and 2021: four or five people during that time; one of the deaths was Covid-19 related. Sadly in the spring of 2021, Corey Tankersley — the father of two of Susan’s cousins — passed away due to Covid-19 complications.
Here’s a link to Corey Tankersley’s | 1971 – 2015 | obituary
https://www.kenosha-funeral-services.com/obituary/3264829
Check out Susan’s website: https://fashionistayogi.com
Here’s a link to her podcast Runway to Reiki which she launched in 2020:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/runway-to-reiki/id1533923013
Susan went to college with my sister at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia.
