Death

What truly aggravates me about the ‘it’s the flu’ and ‘my body, my choice’ about not getting the vaccine is that I have now known 4 men who lost their lives to Covid.

One man was in his 80’s, one was 72, one was 54 and the other was 52.

I enjoyed all of their company through the years.

The two men in their 50’s still had children to tend to. Those men died before the vaccine was available.

I think about them a lot.

Then I made the bad decision to read the story about the 15-year-old boy who fell into the mighty Niagara while fishing with his Dad.

They found his body in Canada.

I had another long drive yesterday on a grey day with the clouds pushing down on my head.

Death.

So random.

So sad.

It’s not easy to get older and think about those we’ve lost. It’s even more disconcerting to understand that hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost to Covid and yet there are still people out there willing to shrug at it.

Then my phone rang and I was happy to see it was a buddy who would talk about golf or baseball and take my mind off it.

“I got some bad news,” he said.

He told me about a mutual friend who has some underlying health conditions, and despite being vaccinated back in April…

…came down with Covid after going to a huge wedding.

“He couldn’t get a bed in the ICU. He nearly died before they finally found one for him. As it is, he’s on a vent.”

“Good Lord,” I said.

“It’s touch and go.”

I drove for a long while thinking about my friend who is suddenly in deep, deep trouble.

“I’m not done laughing with him,” I thought.

But I might be.

And it didn’t have to happen.