MAY 6, 2020: I’ve had these thoughts going around in my head day after day
My mother passed away two weeks ago. Not Covid-related, but I can’t seem to stop thinking about the circumstances surrounding her death and whether this pandemic had anything (or everything) to do with making it happen sooner than it might have otherwise happened.
I’m wondering:
- She had underlying health issues, including at least one acute ailment at the time of her death. Did she not see a doctor about anything that might have been bothering her because she was afraid of leaving the facility where she lived?
- Did she wait too long to go to the emergency room at her local hospital because she was afraid of contracting the virus?
- The ICU staff in the hospital was likely dealing with Covid patients already. Were they stretched too thin, to the point of not being able to give my Mom the care she might have received had the pandemic not been a factor?
These are some of the questions that are swirling around in my head as I process the grief. That’s before I think about the fact that she was alone when she died, without my Dad, who she was married to for 62 years. And the fact that after picking up Mom’s effects at the hospital, he had to go back to the facility and remain on lockdown, alone with his thoughts, for seven days before he could move around the facility again.
For the record, I have not contracted the virus, but I love to write. I had written a previous blog that I ended about eight months ago. Back then, after seven and a half years, I decided that I’d be happy not cranking out new missives on a regular basis. But that was before the Coronavirus came our way.
Now I’ve started this new site, dedicated to getting my random daily (or semi-daily) thoughts down while I go through this crazy time with the rest of the world. Rather than let them build up in my head, I decided to let them spill out here for the time being.
Sometimes you find things to write about. Sometimes, the writing finds you. Heaven only knows where we’ll end up.
Corona Dailies 