Covid in the Family

 

My oldest is down with covid. When he first got sick and took the test, he didn't feel well. That has changed: despite having a good supply of oxygen he had to go to the emergency room twice and then yesterday an ambulance brought him a third time. The hospital found him a bed. Here in Texas these days that means you are pretty damned ill, because there are only beds for really ill people. The rest have already been taken by other covid patients.

What do you say? I can't visit him and he has a tough time talking on the phone because of shortness of breath. This is an athlete we are talking about, a 35-year-old still playing a lot of soccer at a very competitive level. This is a kid who removed an old water heater and installed a new one for me just as his illness was coming on. This is a guy who is father to my grandkids. So far only one of those grandkids is covid positive, but it looks -- fingers crossed -- like her symptoms are mild: A spiked temperature and a few others for a day or so, and nothing since then. She is only eleven, too young for the vaccination.

My son, on the other hand was plenty old enough to get vaccinated but chose not to. He would never give me his reasons, and I suspect he really had none, other than being a 35-year-old athlete who thought he was bulletproof.

When you are a parent, you never stop being concerned about your kids. Once they are on their own, of course, the concern is from a distance. You can no longer bribe them into eating spinach if they really hate it. My three kids are all grown up and as willful as I was and am; heck, they're almost as willful as their mother and grandmother, and that is willful writ with all caps.

I'm pissed off that he didn't get his shots. Yes, we might all grow purple heads out of our shoulders as a side effect in a few years, but so what? Still, it was his choice and it is what it is. But I'm scared, worried, concerned. I am the one who gets exotic diseases and winds up in the ICU, not my kids.

Hundreds of thousands of people are going through this right now, worrying about their kids, their parents, cousins, friends laying in hospitals all across the country. I hope they all get better soon.

And I hope my kid does too and that my granddaughter shows no more symptoms. I love you guys. Get better soon.