Fairfax Co. mom gets creative with son’s birthday during COVID-19

Suzan Watkinson’s driveway in Fairfax County. (WTOP/Kyle Cooper)

As stay-at-home and social distancing orders linger in the D.C. area, it’s not work, shopping and going out to eat being disrupted. Everyday things we take for granted can no longer happen right now, such as birthday parties.

When you can’t gather people because of coronavirus, how do you celebrate a birthday?

The answer is, you get creative.

Fairfax County, Virginia, resident Suzan Watkinson borrowed chalk from a neighbor and decorated her driveway to celebrate her son Connor’s Birthday.

“I never thought I would be decorating a driveway for a 23-year-old, but when there’s nothing much else to do and you’re trying to bring some joy to a person’s life, you start to get creative.” Watkinson said.

Watkinson, her daughters and her son’s girlfriend got to work, decorating the driveway with the words “Happy Birthday,” and even drew a big birthday cake.

Part of the plan was to get people to honk as they drove by to help celebrate, but as Wilkinson said, that turned out not to be, in her words, “super productive, because no one is driving by.

“In the normal world, honking would work,” Watkinson said.

Some people walking dogs did see the driveway art and wished Connor a happy birthday. Mom said, “I think it made him feel loved.”

Happy birthday, Connor!


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Kyle Cooper

Weekend and fill-in anchor Kyle Cooper has been with WTOP since 1992. Over those 25 years, Kyle has worked as a street reporter, editor and anchor. Prior to WTOP, Kyle worked at several radio stations in Indiana and at the Indianapolis Star Newspaper.

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