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2020 Vision

Looking back at the Year of COVID

By Kin Mun "mrbrown" Lee

December 31^st, 2020

Early Days

I was originally going to do just a top nine or best nine set of photos in Instagram on this, the last day of the 2020. But after some thought, I decided the year warranted a more thorough treatment.

I assembled this photo essay to mark the year the coronavirus turned out lives upside down.

Chinese New Year was the last major event we would celebrate before the pandemic changed our lives forever.

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The earliest birthdays of the year were celebrated. In this case, it was Mom's. Later in the year, we would face some serious challenges with her health. But the year began with such naive and carefree optimism. We learned to embrace this joy regardless of the circumstances.

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Faith's New Journey

Faith began her time at the Day Activity Centre. Leaving AWWA school after turning 18 meant that we had to find a new place for our autistic firstborn to learn new things. Formal Special Education ends in Singapore at 18, whether your child is ready or not.

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Church at Home

In the early part of 2020, we could still attend church and other religious services. That was soon to change as services went online and we all "went to church" at home.

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The Great Spring Cleaning

As it became apparent that we were going to spend many months at home, beginning April 7th, the start of the lockdown known as Circuit Breaker, I led the family on the Great Spring Cleaning. We had to clear out decades of junk and Marie Kondo the heck out of our small three-bedroom apartment (which was a HDB 4A flat).

This is Isaac's room, which began as my study, and what happened after we cleaned it out and moved the big desk to the living room.

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We threw out and donated a ton of stuff. The old desk that the kids used in the living room was chucked and replaced with the big desk in Isaac's room so that the wife and I could have a working space. I carved out spaces for everyone: The Wife, me, Faith, Isaac and Joy, and my helper Auntie Marian.

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We even cleared out the storeroom. That was a massive undertaking. The stuff we had in the store room filled the living room and we managed to finally clear enough of the storeroom to be able to walk into it.

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The dining table became the centre of family life. We ate there as a family, studied there, worked there, and chilled there.

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The son also helped me to move half my office stuff home so I could work from home. We had to make two trips on separate days but we pulled it off. My desk evolved over the months, and eventually the home looked like the love child of a TV set and the Starship Enterprise.

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Eating at Home

To minimize exposure for my family, I did most of the marketing myself. I went to the wet market and supermarket every week alone. And then lugged the groceries back myself. Sometimes I would call for help and the family will dispatch one or two people to the bus stop to wait for me to arrive with my haul.

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Baking in Lockdown

We also baked. A lot.

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Celebrations at Home

We also found time for birthdays. At home, of course.

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Pursuing our Passions

We all found things to do to keep ourselves sane. Being at home gave us time to pursue old and new passions. My wife made miniature houses, Joy made jewelry and cosplayed, Isaac made music, and I made a ton of coffee.

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#ThisIsSG: the browns

We made a little short film about that.

Mom

Mom had major surgery this year. She spent a long time in the hospital but she is now at home, recovering slowly. My brothers and I, and our families, took turns to nurse her. She is eating better now but still a long way to go before she regains her former weight. Her diet is still soft but she can start eating more solid food again. She is also starting to go to the jackpot room again, which is a good sign.

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Work Work Work Work Work

Work in 2020 was varied and interesting. I am blessed to have had work to keep me creatively engaged and also to put food on the table. I worked on an animated series with some of the finest comedians of Singapore. I shot a few viral bus videos. I recorded an EP.

Some of the work was pre-lockdown (before masks were mandatory), some during, and some in Phase 1. A lot of work was done from home with a green screen, during the days from the start of Circuit Breaker to Phase 1. And in Phase 2, some cautious outdoor work was done.

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Bus Rides for Faith

Because her Day Activity Centre was closed for part of the year, we had to keep our Special Needs firstborn engaged. We had activities at home most of the time, but we also took her on bus rides. Fortunately, the outings were smooth and she was very cooperative about wearing her mask.

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the mrbrown show LIVE!

I ended the year doing my very first live show. For a year without theatre in Singapore, it was a privilege and an honour to be one of the few acts to have a live audience again. We sold out all four shows, with fans thrilled and happy. It was awesome to do this with the talented crew and band. We ended the dumpster fire that was 2020 with a bang.

(Some photos taken by Daniel Tan IG: @shredcow)

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Losing the Kilos

Oh, and I lost 12 kilograms in 2020. Most of it from April when Circuit Breaker started, to June, when Phase 1 began.

I lost weight mostly from eating sensibly, moderately, and eating home-cooked food. The first photo was me at the start of the year. The last photo was in November 2020. I lost another kilo just doing the mrbrown show LIVE! in December.

The pants photo were the jeans I hard to give away because I went from size 37 to size 33. I went from an L to a M for my tees.

Yes, it was pretty intense. But no fad diets were used at all. My BP went down and most of my energy came back.

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Happy New Year!

So, that was my year. There were many things that happened that I did not include here but these were the ones that stood out to me. While the times were challenging, we still found the time to love and laugh. And above all, we had God's grace, and each other.

May we all have a better 2021 ahead.

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Footnotes

Cover photo and end photo by Bob Lee, as part of his Memory Blocks 2020 art project.

FootNotes

Cover photo and end photo by Bob Lee, as part of his Memory Blocks 2020 art project.

© 2026 Kin Mun "mrbrown" Lee

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