This morning I am reflecting on my family. I had a dream last night James Bond style which involved one of my cousins and my mother and I woke up thinking about all the people I love who I call my family. It’s not just my blood relatives, I have bonus children, bonus siblings, bonus cousins, and friends who are close like siblings, but we share no DNA.
It’s not lost that this is the kick-off to the holiday season with Thanksgiving being right around the corner. My siblings and I had planned on getting together with our children however with the rise in the Covid-19 cases we exceed 10 people. It will not happen, and it makes my heart hurt.
My bonus children are in town and I cannot spend time with them. They are here for reasons outside the normal visits and due to COVID-19 I must be cautious and maintain a safe distance. I also must allow for them to take care of the business at hand that brought them into town and that makes my heart hurt.
I received an invitation to my cousin’s 50th birthday party which is next month. I love my cousin, and these are the “fun” cousins to be around. I do believe the state restrictions and restaurant shutdowns will dictate how that ends however given my own personal underlying conditions and the rise in the COVID-19 cases, I hadn’t confirmed yet I was attending. That makes my heart hurt.
I have 2 friends from high school. One male and one female. I call them my brother and my sister. We are close like triplets. We group chat and make every effort to get together and stay connected. Since the pandemic has started, we have not gotten together although we catch up on a regular basis. I miss their faces. It may be another half year or more before I can see them and that makes my heart hurt.
Even though she is not family, my boss is moving to another state and we have been remote since March. I offered to help her finish packing up the light stuff 😊 so that we could spend an afternoon together before she left. She is a friend and an avid supporter of mine who has been instrumental in my career development over the past few years. The risk of going to seeing her now would be too much and that makes my heart hurt. She is moving on the other side of the country but there is nothing I can do. COVID-19 is real.
My point is this pandemic is real. Covid-19 is still real. Now is not the time to get lax. We all want to see our family and friends and may feel tempted to throw caution to the wind. Once your life is gone, you cannot get it back. Don’t go out there thinking you will be the exception. The virus does not care who you are or what your plans are.
In the past 3 weeks, the virus has come closer to me than I feel comfortable with. People that I know who have been practicing social distancing and washing their hands while masking up found themselves testing positive. What that tells me is that we still do not have a great sense on how dangerous this virus is and how easily it can be spread. With the best efforts, they still contracted it.
There are no do-overs. Wear your mask! Wash your hands! Stay at Home! Spend Thanksgiving and the remaining holidays with the ones in your household. Perhaps you can add a trusted few if you have been interacting with them all along. Do not gamble with your health for a few hours of family time. Plan on a lifetime of getting on each other’s nerves. It will be worth it!
I love you. Until next time, be safe…!
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6 replies on “Pandemic Family Blues”
I know the feeling cuz, I miss you all so much and with my mom Birthday coming it makes it even harder, we all are staying in our homes as well cause we exceed more then ten , I love you cuz,and stay safe.
Be safe and enjoy the holiday! We will toast one up for the best Auntie in the world! Love you!
The heart of the matter is…this really does hurt. It is unreal how many people are still throwing caution to the wind and gathering in large numbers. Yesterday, I was on my way to take an exam and I passed a sports field that was full of soccer players. There had to be at least ~20 high schoolers, in remarkably proximity to each other performing drills. If you have ever participated in any team sports, you know that drills are 90% of the game, which are done in pre-game activity. You are exerting endorphins that will induce sweat; your breathing becomes heavy and the result is usually inhaling large amounts of air through an open mouth. Well, none [not one] of these athletes had on a mask. As close as they were; it is hard to imagine that cross contamination of any kind, was not occurring. Are we really that desperate that we’ll roll the dice on our children’s lives??? It would be unfortunate, yet interesting to know if any of those kids tested positive for COVID in the upcoming days/weeks. There are too many unknowns about this disease to take it for granted.
What really made me go HMMM, is that the coach was standing at a safe distance with his mask on covering both nose and mouth [good]. He was adhering to best practices. However, I am disturbed at the actions of these adults who continue to put the health of these children at risk just to get back to “normal”. Is a soccer game really worth it? Don’t get me wrong, I know kids are suffering at the plight of COVID-19, but we can’t just throw our hands up because we’re tired of what has become our new normal. We must find healthy ways that are safe and protective for our children. We must mentally prepare them and help them pivot into a new “normal” of socially interacting with their peers. As humans we require intimacy, we thrive in relationships; but we must not throw caution to the wind and haphazardly put the lives of our children in harm’s way. Now more than ever we need to be vigilant to stop the spread of this dreadful disease. If we sacrifice our longings to get up and go for a little while longer, the spread of COVID-19 will be reduced and prayerfully minimized to no longer being a public health crisis or threat.
SACRIFICE NOW and PLAY LATER or continue as if this pandemic is not real and PAY NOW.
Stay safe, be blessed and Happy Thanksgiving!
It is unfortunate that consideration is not be given to the protection of the children in the same manner it is given to the adults supervising the events. These super spreaders are partially to blame as reasons for why we cannot get ahead and slow the spread down. We need to educate the children and make sure they understand they may may lose a bit of their time now but they will have their whole lives later.
This soon shall pass. Let us all use wisdom so that we can enjoy life for the remainder of our lives. This pandemic is teaching us a lot about ourselves, primarily we have not been asked by society to make a sacrifice in recent history. I pray will will unify and journey this road together to the other side.
With our family being as close as we are, it really does hurt that we couldn’t gather as much as we did pre-Covid. However, i always know it’s for the best. As far as hanging out, I was a homebody anyway, so being forced in the house to keep yourself and those around you safe wasn’t a big deal to me. I’ve been very cautious since Covid arrived. What is also a benefit to me, is working at healthcare clinic. Although we are putting our lives on the line every day, it’s keeping us on our toes. I really hope 2021, something shifts.