As we brought over the cookies, Bob, who is in his late 70s, after commenting on how rough inflation has been (“but we’re rich so we can afford it”… not sure how much he’s joking) said “because of COVID, we’ve had to scale back our Christmas plans. We used to have 30 of our friends over every Christmas for a holiday get together. We don’t do that anymore, now just us and a few close family members at most.”
I said, “yeah, but you got to remember, you got to enjoy life while you and Mabel still have it to live! You didn’t work this hard not to be able to enjoy yourselves and the company of friends and family.”
Bob looked at me and gave me a pained expression, “yeah, us and a lot of our friends are still afraid of it though.”
I note that it’s almost 2023 and I know full well that Mabel, Bob, and all of his friends and family are all vaccinated and boosted at this point.
It made me extremely sad to know that the legacy of this pandemic is that it’s convinced so many people, particularly the elderly who are near the ends of their lives anyways, to perpetually isolate themselves from the rest of the world and to live life in a sort of colorless suspended animation.
This is terribly sad and probably all too common. That’s the power of fear at work on a vulnerable population. A population that happens to deserve to live fully their last days and months and years surrounded by loved ones and community. They’ve earned it. And it’s been hijacked by the criminals. Shame on the bureaucrats. I wish loneliness upon them.
This is terribly sad and probably all too common. That’s the power of fear at work on a vulnerable population. A population that happens to deserve to live fully their last days and months and years surrounded by loved ones and community. They’ve earned it. And it’s been hijacked by the criminals. Shame on the bureaucrats. I wish loneliness upon them.
I see this in my Home Care clients as well. The television is a poor substitute for person to person contact.