No hooray in this summer’s last hurrah

Well, it finally got me.

For the last several weeks, I’ve been suffering from a bout with COVID. I’d managed to avoid the virus till now, except for one faintly positive test more than a year ago that came with no symptoms and disappeared in a couple of days.

Not so this time!

I had it all except for the loss of taste and smell (and even then, food just doesn’t seem to taste as good, even today). And it seemed to go on and on. Sinus issues…cough…exhaustion…forgetfulness…no appetite. You name it.

I have always had empathy for COVID sufferers during the whole ordeal we have all lived through since March 2020. And when my husband had his first encounter with it a couple months ago complete with a very high fever and strong symptoms, it was very distressing.

But now I can really understand the frustration of the day-to-day and seeming endless feeling of disability. Weeks later, I still quickly lose steam and needed a break.

Fortunately, we live in a big enough house to quarantine without adding to the suffering. But I have to say, the latest guidelines for isolating, masking and staying at home are awfully confusing. For some sufferers, this is not like your common respiratory illness. And looking for guidelines takes you on a roundabout list of suggestions. We have a newborn in the family and that raised a whole other specter of fears. It meant that my husband and I wouldn’t meet our new grandson for several weeks after he was born.

We seem to be more attuned to being careful in our neck of the woods. Elsewhere, people shrug their shoulders and move on with life. At a midwestern family gathering, we learned about a close exposure from a Facebook post. It never occurred to the host to contact us. And when my husband called a client in the south and cautioned them that he might not make the trip because his wife had COVID, the response was “Oh, you can come even if you have COVID. We don’t really pay attention to COVID anymore.”

No wonder this virus hangs around.

I will tell you that after the last three weeks, I intend to get boosted and continue to be careful. I’d like this to be my last COVID column!

We now look toward the new year at a time when we can reflect on what has happened in the past year and turn our thoughts to hope for good to come with COVID behind us!

And when it comes to putting the worst behind us and looking forward with hope and optimism, we’re all hoping that is true for Israel and the remaining hostages. Words can’t do justice to the recent news of the six murdered hostages found in Gaza. Our thoughts are with their families, and we hope that a resolution will bring the rest of the hostages home safely soon.

That would be a great start toward a good year, a healthy year, a sweet year.

L’shanah tovah to you and your family!

Fran Ostendorf,
Editor