Headlines in April declared that COVID-19 had killed more than the 2977 people who died in the 9-11 attacks. This number stunned me as I remembered the devastation our nation felt in our shared grief in September 2001.
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Then on May 27, the New York Times ran a gut-wrenching front-page story to mark the number we'd hoped we'd never see: 100,000 COVID deaths. It felt surreal.
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As I write, our nation is nearing 300,000 COVID deaths. Iowa alone has buried 2522. Our country is now recording the equivalent of 9-11 deaths each day.
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Last night we learned that a farmer/neighbor/friend died of COVID, ten days after his wife died of the same.
A local businessman also died yesterday. His wife greets me at the drive-up window at my bank. His daughter works at the school. His granddaughter is my student.
He was 60 years old.
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Meanwhile, one of my colleagues is on my mind tonight. She is--like me--a member of our school's Old Guard: that is, we carry years of history and wisdom on our hunched and arthritic backs! She and her husband have both contracted COVID.
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The New York Times has published a tool that shows us our position in line to receive the COVID vaccine. I thought as a teacher I might be able to budge my way towards the front of the line. (This works in the school cafeteria.)
No go.
I'm not a healthcare provider.
I do not live in a care center.
I'm old but not old enough.
I don't have co-morbidities.
This means I am neatly halfway down the line of priority for Iowans receiving the vaccine.
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Today I again wore my mask. I washed my hands. I sprayed down the desks. I kept my distance. I gazed at this picture of my son and his son:
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| Wolf and his daddy Enough. Be well. Write. Allison |
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