I was about to throw away a wilting bouquet of flowers when I noticed there's beauty *because* of the dark edges, not in spite of them. It made me think of the pandemic, and whether it's brought anything beautiful with it that I wouldn't have seen before. It's hard to answer that question. This week I'm angry with the Facebook hordes posting selfies with their vaccine bandaids. My state is way behind, and there's no vaccine in sight for me. I'm about to miss yet another family wedding, and my elderly mother is in steep decline 3000 miles away. I'm genuinely happy for those who can get vaccines. But I've stopped logging into Facebook because it just leaves me feeling tearful.
March 4, 2021
In the first part of the year 2020, before Corona Virus affected as many as it did today, my father in law passed away. In April, my son and his wife were furloughed and had to move back to Texas from their posh jobs at hotels in Phoenix. My son's wife was pregnant and it concerned both of them if they would make it financially so they moved in with her family for 8 months. The baby was born in July of the pandemic. I could not see the boy until he was 6 weeks old. My son and daughter neither had jobs but my son and a friend opened up a handyman business doing odd jobs. It didn't do too well but broke even for the first few months. Now he and his family have moved into a new townhome. Another son was considered essential so his job continued. Then, his mother in law died. Later that summer, his father in law passed. My husband was furloughed for one job, rehired, furloughed again. He is now unemployed. He is a chef and restaurants have been shut to 50% in our area still. Cutbacks had to made. He suffers even more because he is disabled. His mother died from Corona in December. My job has send me home to work online, and then brought me back to work, then back home and then back to work. I am set to go back 1/11/2021. I am awaiting if that changes. One thing I have noticed is that my allergies and asthma have not been quite as bad in 2020. I think this is due to the masks and distances we must keep as well as the cleanliness of businesses and schools.
January 12, 2021