Our oven broke. Guillaume said he smelled burned electronics and saw smoke. We tried preheating. The inside stayed cold.

There’s never really a good time for something like this to happen, but during a pandemic was a big blow. In the moment, I was inconsolable. My tears weren’t just about the oven, though. They were the dam breaking on mounting losses.

Weeks have passed. The wrong replacement part arrived by mail. We’re still waiting for the correct one. In the search for silver linings, we still had a working stovetop.