Mistii Lagorio is the matriarch of the Lagorio family consisting of her, patriarch Kevin, adult children Devin, Adrianna “Adri,” and Gianna “Gigi.” Lagorio talked about living through the past unprecedented and difficult year, while looking ahead to what’s next.
Research reported in the news has indicated a detrimental impact on Americans’ emotional and mental health and the Lagorio family did indeed feel the impact. Lagorio said it was much more difficult in the beginning since there were more restrictions and more people were at home.
Being a hairdresser, Lagorio’s business was shut down for 10 months and she was unable to bring in any income. Lagorio found herself having to count her pennies and be more flexible on what to spend in order to manage and financially contribute to her family’s well-being.
Lagorio’s elderly parents, Sue and Bob Rocha, were afraid to go out and do things in fear of catching the virus, as a result, she became their Uber driver for things such as going grocery shopping, going to doctors’ appointments and other errands.
Mistii’s children have all lived through different experiences this year:
- Devin, a college senior, said the pandemic is legitimate and we have to keep moving forward, doing everything we can to get it under control.
- Adrianna, who works in government in Washington D.C. was, as described by Mistii as “the biggest stickler” on masks and vaccinations but her and fiancé work from home and take the time to enjoy the things around them.
- Gianna, the youngest child and the most social of the three, was disappointed not to be able to have social interactions or have a proper college graduation.
Despite this, in order to cope with these hard times, the family has begun doing things that they have been taken for granted a lot more and making a lot of telephone calls as they have realized people need others to check on them because they never know what anyone else is going through.
Mistii and her family have learned to enjoy the simplicity of things and appreciate what we have each and every day, especially since some people she’s known have died from COVID-19.
The Lagorio family’s hopes for the future are that people will try to be responsible in making decisions that not only affect themselves but other people too, as well being able to go back to some type of normalcy.
“If the sun comes up and the birds are singing then we’re very fortunate to be here and alive,” said Mistii Lagorio.
