My husband and I have been married for almost 37 years. For every one of those 37 years the house has been my office/territory and my husband has left the house each workday to go to his office.

Over the last year he has been increasingly talking about retiring and I have been a little concerned... worried.... well... actually terrified about what this will mean for me/us.

We have not been entirely alone together for decades — without our kids, friends, extended family, outside interests. It has taken COVID-19 to change all that.

My activities outside the house have stopped and my husband is now working from home...we are now together 24/7 - even when we go out for groceries, we go together. If you had given me a heads up that this was coming, I would have broken into a sweat and might have looked for ways to escape the coming isolation.

However — and here's the thing — it is working out pretty well. We have had only minor disagreements. We watch Netflix, play Scrabble, we have earlier dinners, and we seem to be more patient and respectful of each other. Who would have thought this could happen?

These are early times and I hope for everyone's sake that this crisis ends sooner rather than later, but it has been a trial run for what the future will look like with my husband retired, and it does not look quite as terrifying anymore. If we can self-isolate together (an oxymoron?) 24/7, imagine how good the future will be when he retires and we still have outside interests to give us healthy time apart :-)