Who among us thought it would last for an entire year? Looking to March of 2020, when the strange new reality of the coronavirus pandemic began to grip the Wilmington area, the 12 months of what we've collectively been through is not something many could've begun to get their heads around back then. Carla Turner, assistant director of the New Hanover County Health Department, said she remembers being at work on March 19 when the first case of COVID-19 in New Hanover County was confirmed. (The first case in the three-county area was in Brunswick County on March 13.) "When we had our first case, we were all aflutter," Turner said. "Never stopping to think we'd be having days where we had 100 new cases."