Category Archives: Sharing Life Stories

Pandemic 2020-21 ~ February

Have the new jab

The roll out of vaccines continues to improve after a very fitful start! It was just by a fluke that I happened to snag my appointment early on by filling out the survey with the health department. I had no idea that I’d be one of the first 5,000 in our district to be put in the pilot program with the University of Virginia 75 plus Employee Health. As of now, I’m feeling relief that I have both #1 and #2 dose when I see so many getting frustrated with the mechanics of securing their appointments. Pat also had his #1 and #2 dose, and the long-term care facility process went very smoothly. No major side effects for either one of us.

The federal government continues to act in getting information out to all Americans. Vaccination sites now include pharmacies and hospitals, as well as the mass vaccination sites around the district. It was just announced that the federal government is sending 25 million masks to Community Health Centers, Soup Kitchens and Food Pantries across the nation!!
💚😇😷

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I kept thinking about the memoir my Uncle Jack wrote about the period covering (1917-1927). I couldn’t remember if he’d written about the 1918 Flu Epidemic. I’ve been writing in his mother Anna’s, first-person voice with the information he’d provided. It was also during the time the US was at war with Germany and rationing food. (WWI)”

The number of deaths from the 2018 flu epidemic was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States. Mortality was high in people younger than 5 years old, 20-40 years old, and 65 years and older.

Over the last year I’d stopped writing about his and my paternal grandmother’s experience because of COVID-19 brain fog and writer’s block. When I finally took the memoir out, I came across this section about their own experience with this deadly epidemic.

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“The worldwide flu epidemic killed many people and we had our own scare when Jack got very sick. We put his bed in the front room where we could keep the temperature cold by opening the windows because the doctor believed this killed the germs. We covered him with lots of blankets. The only foods he could eat were soft foods like soft-boiled eggs, ice cream, custard, jello and rice pudding. He really liked this because we rarely had these delicious foods during the rationing. I tried to keep him quiet by propping him up with pillows so he could look out the window and watch the men build the new school across the street. They tore down all the houses that were there, leaving only the foundations, and putting up the school in their place. It was going to be named Roosevelt School.

Jack’s fifth birthday went by without our celebrating it because he was so sick. When he was feeling better, we surprised him with a birthday cake. Ray, Henry and I, along with two of Jack’s aunts, walked into his room carrying the cake with lighted candles. We all sang ‘Happy Birthday to you” and rolled in the brand new red wagon that he’d always wanted.

Finally, the day came that we could close the windows in his room and heat up his room. We got him out of bed and up on his feet. We helped him stand up but he was too weak to walk. Each day I would help him out of bed and walk with him around the room. It wasn’t long before he was running all around the apartment. The day came that we all celebrated when Jack was able to go outside!! What a joy to see him pulling his red wagon up and down the street. The workmen building the school across the street asked him if he’d like to load some of the pieces of wood laying all over the construction site into his wagon, and bring it home for firewood for our stove. Jack was so proud when he wheeled the wagon into our apartment and put all the wood into our coal bin.”

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(c) Donna Ashworth
Worldometer dot com as of February 28th

Pandemic 2020-21 ~ January

Be Gone the Old and Begin the New

COVID-19 cases continue to grow here in the United States. This is over-shadowed by 50% of the country that continues to protest our election results. More and more voices of integrity call on the Trump to stop feeding the Stop the Steal machine. All of his efforts to overturn the election results failed and tension has been building up to the day that Congress meets to certify the electoral votes. Trump continues to organize his followers around that date and calls for a massive protest outside the Capital Building.

A sense of dread was building up in me as January 6th drew closer. The president’s rhetoric clearly was a call to his followers to ‘take back their country’ and to stop congress from taking the final step to making President-Elect Biden the 46th president of the US. When the morning arrived, it was clear that the huge crowd that gathered were determined to ‘stop the steal’.

It was also clear that most of the massive crowd weren’t wearing masks or social distancing. As the 45th president ended his speech, the mob – acting as one – stormed the capitol where congress was in progress. The assault on the Capitol left the nation stunned yet many of us were not surprised.

Meanwhile, we were getting increasingly urgent warnings that the next three months were going to be the worst in the pandemic. It was predicted that the death toll in the US by the end of March would be 500,000. We were encouraged to stay home and return to the level of precautions that we had back in the beginning of the pandemic.

Worldometer.com January 30, 2021

Our local Health Department opened up phase 1a and 1b for the first vaccination and I completed the survey for 75 and over. I was one of the 5,000 given an appointment for the pilot program through the local University Medical Center. The process ran smoothly and my second vaccine is scheduled for February 12th. I soon learned that I got in just before the vaccine shortage was announced and many are now forced to wait maybe months.

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Pat and I continue to be a daily comfort and support to each other. He’s set to have his first vaccine at his long-term-care facility next week. It’s hard to believe we’ve been living this pandemic life for almost a year now. We’ve been able to be together three times since it began and every day I feel hugged and loved when we talk on the phone.

Since the new administration has taken over there’s been intelligent and thorough briefings of where we are when it comes to this pandemic. President Biden’s first actions have been directed at the people of America who are truly suffering from loss of jobs, housing and basic needs. There’s a feeling that he gets it!

Martin Luther King Day was January 18th. This year it had even more meaning considering the unfolding of Black Lives Matter Protests along with the impact that COVID-19 has had on the African American communities. I read a few of his sermons and his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. This man was a prophet filled with truth and wisdom and continues to lead us.

Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the whole staircase.
Martin Luther King Jr.
(1929 – 1968)

2013 – Then Vice-President Biden and my son at the Memorial for the Granite Mountain Hotshots 9 Firefighters who perished in the Arizona fires.

Me in the Middle of Order, Disorder and Reorder

Could this be what our Country, the USA, is going through?
“A sense of order is the easiest and most natural way to begin; it is a needed first “container.” But this structure is dangerous if we stay in its safe confines too long. It is small and self-serving. It doesn’t know the full picture, but it thinks it does. “Order” must be deconstructed by the trials and vagaries of life. We must go through a period of “disorder” to grow up.

Only in the final “reorder” stage can darkness and light coexist, can paradox be okay. We are finally at home in the only world that ever existed. This is true and contemplative knowing. Here death is a part of life, failure is a part of victory, and imperfection is included in perfection. Opposites collide and unite; everything belongs.”

Me In The Middle

I had a Cancer Scare!

…….. And I need to write about that this week.

It all began a little over two months ago …….. out of the blue …… when life was going smoothly and all was well.  I’ve very few medical problems aside from some inevitable aging issues passed down the line among family members.

OrderORDER

And then …….. there it was.  A sign that something was wrong and things were about to change.  What was going on!?!

stock-photo-uterus-or-uterine-cancer-medical-concept-as-cancerous-cells-in-a-female-body-attacking-the-218163580Appointments were made and, one by one, tests began to return negative biopsies and hope started to settle in.  I was on the threshold of life where the outcome was uncertain ~ 75% chance of cancer in a woman my age.   Slowing down and getting myself prepared for any possibility was a process that took me deeper into the letting go of where I might be holding onto the…

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Pandemic 2020 ~ December

The Gift of Vaccine

Image may contain: 3 people, people sitting, people standing, child and indoor

Jeffrey Sherman

When I was a kid, they rolled out a vaccine for polio. We were given it at school on a sugar cube. I went home and my dad, who was working on Mary Poppins, asked how my day was. What I didn’t know was that Julie Andrews who was hired to play Mary had not really liked the song my dad and uncle had written -“Through the Eyes of Love” – and it was rejected. It was their favorite song for the movie. Walt asked the Sherman Brothers to come up with a new song that would be in line with Mary’s //Julie’s philosophy. Dad asked me how my day was and I told him about getting the polio vaccine at school. I was known for rejecting the booster shots at my doctors’ office and running away. He said, “ Didn’t it hurt?” I told him they put it on a sugar cube and you just ate it. He stared at me, then went to the phone and called my uncle Dick. They went back to the office and wrote -“A Spoonful of Sugar” (Helps the Medicine Go Down.”) It’s my little corner of film music history I suppose. Inadvertently. For anyone I know here on FB, trust the doctors. When the vaccine for Covid comes out, get it. We are all dependent on each other in this pandemic. Trust science and doctors and epidemiologists. We are a small world and we will beat this enemy if we listen to those who know. Be safe. Wear a mask. Be kind and thoughtful and considerate to your fellow man and woman. We will beat this. xo J

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“I wasn’t nervous at all.” 90-year-old British grandma is the world’s first to receive Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID vaccine.

First COVID Vaccine In U.S. Goes To NYC Critical Care Nurse🇺🇸
😷🧡🩺💉👏

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I was one of the lucky 16 days of giveaway winners at my apartment complex! A wonderful Spa Kit to help me get through the next two cold, winter months.

No photo description available.
Holiday Grab Bag 2020

It turned out to be a very nice Christmas this year. My son, Jeff, came down a few days before to take me out to lunch (a first for me since COVID-19 began) and we were the only ones in the cafe. Masks and social distancing were strictly enforced and yet it was still a pleasant experience. Jeff received his first vaccine provided for the healthcare providers.

I was able to talk on the phone with my other sons and know that they are all well. Each is fortunate to have jobs that keep them secure.

The long-term care facility where Pat lives provided a wonderful Christmas lunch that was delivered to his apartment. We’re both happy to have made it this far and to have had each other to lean on.

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Lie of the Year (Yup! You guessed it!) The “award” this year goes to claims that deny, downplay or disinform about COVID-19:

https://www.politifact.com/article/2020/dec/16/lie-year-coronavirus-downplay-and-denial/?fbclid=IwAR1NALg-EHRlS3_luZYRDTFUEaEp_yvmCc–FAVvGce2GHUxdZPHbLKwTKo

Quotes of the 2020:

“One day – It’s like a miracle – It will disappear!” Trump 2/27

“Wear a Mask!” Fauci 5/21

“The science should not stand in the way of this.” McEnany 7/16

Source: Worldometer.com

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My wishes to all of you, both near and far, for a safer and healthier New Year 2021.

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Add your thoughts in comments below: American interest wanes in getting COVID-19 vaccine. Why?

https://dailyprogress.com/news/national/american-interest-wanes-in-getting-covid-19-vaccine-why/article_4dfac339-0bbd-5761-9b8b-f4b731ad296d.html?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_The_Daily_Progress&fbclid=IwAR12dgGCe1NFeuGFo17pytEID_Bn09krkqEms8tTSqarbWyfbZH2gtWQfN8

Me In The Middle Of Feeling Christmas Spirit (Reblog from 2015 looking back during Pandemic 2020)

Christmas Roses #2 (2)
(c) mlq

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~ The Christmas Rose ~

She stood beside the doorway softly weeping,
without the slightest gift for the newly born
who lay within a manger, peaceful, sleeping.


Three travelers, all richly dressed, but worn,
brought royal treasures for him in their keeping ~
the shepherd maiden wept unseen, forlorn.
In the chill of winter, she had found no rose
nor blossom; ‘midst the rocky hills none grows.

An angel saw her sorrow; understanding
at once the reason, swept away the snow,
revealing there some Christmas Roses. Handing
these white and waxen flowers to her, “Go –
an offering so pure is right,” commanding
with gentleness that only angels know.
The gift was made – beneath the angel’s wink,
the petals blushed from white to palest pink.

© Margaret I. Gibson

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Some of the best memories I have of past Christmas holidays were when I let go of expectations and just let it happen.

 Ever since I was a little girl I’ve felt that Christmas was meant for all people of good will.  It never dawned on me that Christmas would belong to just one religion.  I knew it was the birth of Jesus ~ the tiny infant who was born in a humble stable ~ who came to love the world and the message he brought to us was to love one another.

My early memories of Christmas were more of the feeling of togetherness, belonging and acceptance.  There was a feeling of magic in the air.  There weren’t many gifts under the tree ~ yet it was my favorite time of the year.  There was something infectious about the outpouring of Good Will as you went about the day meeting people along the way.

When my children were growing up it was fun taking on the passing along of this tradition.  Seeing their eyes brighten with anticipation as the day grew nearer, and gathering them around the Nativity Scene to impress upon them that it was this humble birth we were celebrating.

Then there were the times when I was weary and burdened with worries and stresses.  When I didn’t have enough money to get them gifts or a tree.  When I watched the hustle and bustle of every one caught up in the season and felt isolated from it.  I thought it was all going to pass us by.  Surprisingly, these were the times I remember the most because it’s at times like these that even the smallest gift and the smallest gestures of kindness and love mean the most.  It was at times like these that I experienced what the real meaning of Grace is.  It was at times like these that I learned that Christmas happens every day when we’re open to it.  

That humble birth of that one small child speaks to all of us about the simplicity of Love ~ A Gift that shouts out at a World that desperately needs it.  It’s not a gift that belongs to any specific religion.  It’s a gift that belongs to all of us!  

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“Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people” (Luke 2:10).