2:20 am.
I’m posting again.
I’ll keep it short. A story like we all have day in day out, here’s the latest:
My friend and housemate Doug (Lewis and I live in his house) flew to California 5 days ago, so excited, to visit his cousin, who, after being healthy as a horse all his life, had an incapacitating stroke after shots and is now in a wheelchair.
Doug arrived and got a cold, common to travelers. He was tired and had a mild fever. This caused his cousin and his wife, (primarily his wife) to FLIP OUT.
They decided Doug had Covid.
I got a text that read: “They want me to get the vaccine.”
I called him, too stunned to speak, at first.
He sounded like somebody who'd been in an abusive military interrogation. “I don’t want to take the shot Celia.”
“Doug! Can you hear me?” I raised my voice like I do when I get scared.
“Yes,” he said.
”You have to say these words: “I am not going to take it.” The shot.
Not that you do not want to. That you are not going to.”
“Right,” he said.
They were trying to make him to to the nearest hospital, and they treated him with sudden onset hatred because he didn’t want to, was not worried about his cold.
And they made him stay in quarantine on a room at the back of the house.
Then— they insisted he ship off today, two days early, missing his planned birthday tomorrow Monday, with them, and traveling on the worst day of the year. So I am picking him up at the airport at 3:30 am.
When he left, his cousin’s wife would not even let him wave goodbye to his cousin.
He sounds shell shocked.
Doug never punches back. I always ask if I can do it for him and he always says no.
The cousin emailed him. “We’re worried about you.”
”Bullshit” I started screaming. “Don’t even read it to me. “
The treacherous, cowardly cousin listed what they thought Doug’s health issues were, like being hard of hearing. That’s because he won’t stand up to his wife.
Better to invent a reason why she was not being complete monster. “We’re worried about you.” That’s why we are kicking you out, with a cold, to travel half way through the night, and be in an airport in NC for 3 hours, and have a broken heart. Because we’re worried about you.
“Her husband is in a wheelchair,” I said to Doug. “She wants you in one too?”
“They had to drill a hole in his head, Celia,” Doug said.
After the stroke. I had forgotten that.
The spirit of Covid is the coldest thing ever to reach these United States, surely.
They treated him like a dog.
He was a guest.
Do you have any idea what this would mean to an Ancient Greek person?
Time to go to the airport.
How much more of this can we take?
Doug now has nobody in this world, except me.
That was his family.
And today (Monday) is Doug’s 70th birthday.
When people tell you who they are, believe them. He is lucky to have found out who they are. People all over the world are finding out who their families are. Sometimes it is the people who are not related to you.
Oh my goodness, poor Doug. I recall a lunch date with my oldest friend of over 50 years. Local to me but not seen or heard much from her all of 2020. This was now May or June 2021. She had taken the 2 doses. We had arranged a lunch date, outdoor dining at my local hostelry which was literally a 3 minute drive from my home. As we got to her car, she said "Have you got your mask? Can't be too careful, can we?" As I'd not had any company for a year or more already, I just complied with her request. Not seen or heard from her since. Probably because I'm some health threat still. She's not the only one either. I never realised that I'd have to start afresh making new friends in my 60's and it's not easy when retired. One family member unfriended me on FB also. Anyone with the tiniest amount of critical thinking skills left must surely have some doubts, something niggling inside by now?