Written By Chris Cruger and Alice Adams 2018 – Business as usual — the “normal” as we knew it. 2019 – The COVID-19 pandemic arrives, ravaging both coasts then quickly spreading across the U.S. 2020 – Hospitals at capacity, death rates climbing daily, funeral homes and cemeteries overwhelmed. 2021 — COVID-19 listed as the underlying or contributing cause of 460,513 deaths (111.4 per 100,000), an increase from 384,536 deaths (93.2) in 2020, according to Centers for Disease Control/Prevention. 2022 — COVID-19 accounted for about 270,000 deaths in 2022, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, down from 473,000 in 2021, and 350,000 in the pandemic’s first year. 2023 – America back to work, nation in recovery, “new normal emerging.” ***** By mid-2020, phones stopped ringing in businesses, members of the workforce who were not furloughed were now working from home, most schools were closed and […]