What Cass said, and I'm so sorry.
Mom says their neighbor two doors over, a sweet woman who was the caretaker for the wonderful people, Pat and Lucy, who lived there when I was growing up (they had no children and left her the house), who lost two children unexpectedly (a daughter who drowned as a child and a son who died in his sleep in his 30s), who had had two kidney transplants, is in the ICU with COVID-19 and expected to be taken off life support today.
I remember helping sort through paperwork with her when Lucy passed, as Pat was hospitalized at the time, trying to find everything we needed, which was hard, because the town where Lucy was born no longer existed and this was the 1990s and not everything was online.
This all could have turned out so differently. It didn't have to be like this.
It really didn't.
This is all so brutal. JZ, I know you do just right, with all of this. Make sure you can be taken care of, too, in addition to taking care of everyone else.
Oh, JZ, I'm so sorry. That's a terrible conversation to have to have.
This all could have turned out so differently. It didn't have to be like this.
It really didn't.
Yes, this. Also, it's really nice to see Cass here.
JZ, I am so sorry.
Before you call your father's girlfriend, maybe pull up your email you sent to your brothers so that you have some of the words handy? I don't know.
I hope you're all of one mind. That was a mercy for my mother and me when we decided on palliative care for my father.
Make sure you can be taken care of, too, in addition to taking care of everyone else.
And what Jesse said.
This all could have turned out so differently. It didn't have to be like this.
It really didn't.
No. It did not. I've had to park my anger because it's not productive anger. I'm sorry about your parents' neighbor, Plei.
This all could have turned out so differently. It didn't have to be like this.
It really didn't.
No. It did not. I've had to park my anger because it's not productive anger.
In between the tears and the la-la-la flibbertigibbert distractions, I am a vibrating ball of world's-angriest-dog level rage.
We told Matilda, and she cried and cried and now she's talking to one of her best friends and then she's going to call Emmett.
Thanks. I didn't know her especially well, as I'd moved out by the time Pat died so she was never my neighbor, but we were both very close to Pat and Lucy (who were like surrogate grandparents to me, very much so--Melanie and I were two of the few individuals in Pat's will, as most of his estate went to charity) and it's hitting me much harder than it should be.
I'm angry for Melanie, for JZ's family, for all of us. And just so, so, so deeply sad.
Also, it's really nice to see Cass here.
Thanks! I've missed it here. B.org is always home.
This all could have turned out so differently. It didn't have to be like this.
It didn't. It makes me so angry.
It's a very different disease but the way we dealt with Ebola was such a stark contrast.
With this we had time. We should have had people and access to data and a sense that the lives and health of our people (all people, really) matters. But don't want to scare the stock market. And, maybe, maybe we think if we close our eyes, the monster won't be there. With disease, the monster is always there. Waiting. Especially things that we've dealt with so long like variations of corona viruses.
I'm angry.
