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Since March, Whitgrove put together 29 puzzles, most of them with 1,000 pieces. Whitgrove hadn’t done many puzzles since childhood but it’s become the perfect activity for the pandemic. “It’s more than a distraction. It’s a problem I can solve,” Whitgrove said. “”I can’t affect all those big things in the world out there, but I can solve this problem. It gives me a sense of control.”
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The idea of putting a puzzle together started before the pandemic. During a visit to California in early March, Whitgrove’s sister bought a puzzle that featured a variety of green houseplants, which they put together. So when the stay at home order went into effect, Whitgrove, pictured above, found one puzzle at home and put it together to pass the time.
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“It was only a 500-piece puzzle, a still life of vegetables in wicket basket, kind of fall colors,” Whitgrove said. So Whitgrove bought a couple more 500-piece puzzle and started posting about her progress on social media. Another friend noticed and offered to lend Whitgrove some of her 1,000-piece puzzles “When I’m done, I’ call her up, come over and give her the ones I’ve finished,” Whitgrove said. “And she gives me new ones.” By assembling all these puzzles, she’s worked out a system. Like many people, Whitgrove separates the border pieces and puts that part together first.
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The she places about half of the pieces on a tray and works on those first “otherwise it’s too deep to wade through,” she said. Sometimes she builds up form part of the border and sometimes she concentrates on a particular color. Every now and then, she begins with the middle. Whitgrove is so absorbed she scarcely notices the passing of time. “That the blessing of it,” she said.
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She can finish in a puzzle in about four to five days – although one puzzle took just three days and a few others required over a week. The ice cream cone puzzle took nine days, she said, but her favorite is the one with butterflies. "The colors are so pretty," she said. Whitgrove doesn’t spend every month of the day working on them.
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“I have to run a dust rag around every now and then and vacuum the dog hair,” she said with a laugh. “And cook. Those kinds of things. But you forget the stuff that going on around you. And all of sudden is, ‘Oh, gosh, what will I make for dinner?’” Whitgrove said she also keeps busy with her book club and coloring in coloring books - and not adult coloring books. She colors in regular children's coloring books.
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Like puzzles, coloring helps dispel any trepidation about turmoil in the world. "All I'm thinking about is what color I'm coloring Strawberry Shortcake's hat," Whitgrove said. "Before you know it, half an hour's gone by and my mind's calmed down." (All photos)