Coronavirus Diary Day 25: April 6, 2020

Trigger Warning: This won’t be a pleasant.

Things are getting bleak in the heavily populated communities in America. If you live in a high density area, and if you’re going to the hospital on account of Coronavirus, you’re not seeing your loved ones until you’re healthy again. Period. And if you don’t get better? You’re dying with a nurse by your side. Not your son. Not your daughter. Not your parents. Not your grandchildren. No matter what, while you’re in the hospital, your only companions are healthcare workers.

By the way, healthcare workers include janitors, food handling professionals, and administrators. (Trust me, I know).

This is happening around the globe, by the way.

I know old people, like, seriously old people (approaching 100). If one of the old people I know was to be hospitalized with COVID-19, they would not have the technological knowledge to FaceTime, Skype, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Zoom, or Houseparty. We’d be completely disconnected. We. Would. Be. Completely. Disconnected.

One of the most important moments of my life was saying goodbye to my grandmother. Like, in real time, at her bedside, in the flesh. If I had to do that virtually? OK… maybe. There are circumstances for that, of course. But Coronavirus patients are saying goodbye virtually all the time. And if they don’t have the ability to connect virtually, they suffer with a nurse by the their side.

Nurses. Nurses.

Thank you, Nurses. Thank you so, so much.

I had more I wanted to say. But yanno. (Nurses.) Don’t you ever feel like that? You have more you want to say… but why bother.

Friends, stay healthy. Take deep, cleansing breaths; exercise and meditate; don’t smoke (don’t vape, for crying out loud, do not vape); and please practice responsible social distancing. Which means: Stay home. If you do it right, you only need to shop for groceries once every ten days.

Good luck out there, peeps!