POSTCARD FROM THE PANDEMIC

Dr. Aly Sergie is a dentist who has lived in Windsor Park for two years. His business in Uptown is only allowed to treat life-threatening emergencies. He has two children, Selma, 6, and Raffi, 3, who attend Montessori Children’s House and School. His wife, Amera, is a mental health counselor. His parents live two miles away. His dad, Assad Sergie, is in his early 90s and his mom, Michele Sergie, is in her mid 70s. We talked to Dr. Sergie about how he’s balancing life during the coronavirus.

His business strategy: I’ve had to furlough and lay off my employees as they can’t do anything from home. We’re a business that involves seeing people in person. I’ve had to call my lenders to see what they’re able to do to either delay payments on notes or do interest free. I’ve had to cut everything that’s on a recurring basis, that’s not absolutely critical.”

How he supports his parents: I have not seen my parents in person for at least 10 to 15 days. We do FaceTime. We have the mental and emotional component, but we can’t see them. We normally share meals with them a couple times a week, and we don’t do any of that right now.

Typical daily routine: I still go into my office. There’s a ton of work that needs to be done just for insurance and other things. We wake up and do breakfast. Our kids’ school is doing virtual lesson plans. We’re not professional educators, and so we’re doing our best. We’re trying to limit screen time. My wife is a mental health counselor, so she sees clients virtually. We go for a lot of walks. We try to keep it as normal as possible. Just the other day we had a group meet-up at Keller’s Hamburgers because it’s a drive-thru and they’ll bring you food. My daughter got to see a lot of her friends. Obviously, she couldn’t talk to them or play with them in person, but she could at least see them from other cars.

His advice: Things will get back to some version of normal at some point. Find out what is most important for you because you don’t know what’s going to happen with your business. This is a time to pause and reflect. Find people that you like talking with. Stay off social media because there’s a lot of craziness out there.