April 12, 2020

Casey Devine wears a mask and gloves while pushing shopping carts together in the rain on April 12, 2020, in Charlotte, NC. Devine is working at Harris Teeter during the Coronavirus pandemic after the high school baseball season was canceled.
Casey Devine wears gloves while pushing shopping carts together on April 12, 2020 in Charlotte, NC. (Photo by Lindsay Kappius)
Casey Devine poses for a portrait on April 12, 2020, in Charlotte, NC. Easter Sunday looks different for essential workers like Devine. Grocery stores remain open and functional even on holidays during the pandemic. (Photo by Lindsay Kappius)

A rainy Easter Sunday means that adorable egg hunts are canceled, feature hunting will be wet, and overall it may suck to photograph BUT I still went out and tried to make a picture! I drove to the same shopping center that I shot the geese in and saw a bright yellow jacket from a distance. Immediately I knew that if this caught my eye, it could make a picture. I debated not getting out of the car solely on not wanting to get rejected by the mysterious yellow jacket employee. I knew that grocery store workers have been working hard lately, and I almost didn’t bother, BUT I put my big girl pants and rain jacket on and did it anyway. The yellow jacket wearer was Casey Devine, a senior in high school who started working for Harris Teeter after the baseball season got canceled. He had only been working for about a month, so he got the short end of the stick and had to be the person to put away the carts in the rain. He freely let me photograph, both of us getting soaked in the process and seeking shelter to chat for a minute in between cart retrieval. I learned about his college plans for going to NC State. I suggested enjoying your time in college as it goes by fast. He looks forward to how fun it will be. I wished him the best in his future, and I am glad that I stopped to learn more about the mysterious yellow jacket employee.

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