One Year of the Pandemic: A Look at Life Then and Now We've gone from bread-baking to low-carbing, from making masks to making vaccine appointments by Sheryl Jean, AARP, March 11, 2021 | Comments: AARP En español | One year of the coronavirus pandemic has dramatically altered how Americans live, learn, work, worship and play. Delores and John Miles, married 71-year-old retirees who live in McKinney, Texas, opted for grocery delivery, didn't socialize with friends, canceled a European river cruise and stopped going to church, the gym and restaurants. "At the very beginning, I was optimistic that this was going to be a short-time epidemic that was going to be quickly resolved,” Delores says. “Our whole thought process changed in a matter of months. I feel like our age group was the most threatened. We stopped doing all of the fun things that made our lives mentally healthy."