Covid hits home

A short one today, as my family has experienced two close Covid-19-related deaths in the past week.

One was on my mom's side of the family, in Rome, an old friend of my grandmother's from when they lived in Romania in the 1930s. They were so close in those days, and in the days after the war, that their children effectively grew up together with my mom and considered each other cousins. They're still friends to this day, which is what makes the loss more painful for her.

The other death is my dad's older sister, who was also my godmother. She had a difficult time of it from an early age, with her interest in painting curtailed by mental illness that plagued her through her life. Between that, and illness caused by decades of smoking, she had to go live in an assisted living facility several years ago, which is where our current plague found her, after several months cut off from her family.

Both deaths were in Italy, which has little directly to do with our current surge in cases here in the US. But for those gearing up to get on a plane to visit relatives, please think of who you're going to encounter while you travel. The people in the airport, or train station, or gas station might not believe in wearing masks, or might know people who think the virus is a hoax. You might not feel bad when you meet your parents, or cross paths with an assisted-living nurse - you might not feel bad at all throughout the time you have the virus.

But the virus doesn't care - it's opportunistic and fast. My aunt was diagnosed last week and was asymptomatic until this morning, at which point they rushed her to the hospital. She died seven hours later.

So please stay home. Take care of yourselves, and take care of others, by limiting your travels and visits to bars and other public places. The most vulnerable people in society - the old, the ill and the poor - are being decimated by this thing and so it's up to us to help keep them safe.