The title is not meant to be facetious in any way shape or form. It is the simple truth. We lost my father’s youngest sister in March. It was not COVID but I believe that the (necessary) precautions taken for potential COVID spread – NO visitors, for example – were likely a contributing factor.

Last night we lost my mother’s youngest brother. This time COVID was the culprit. Actually, he had RECOVERED from COVID. Symptoms (fever mainly from what little I know) had abated, he tested negative, and there had been talk of sending him home in a few days. Unfortunately the virus did a number on his 94-year-old body, he took a turn for the worse, and died after a brief hospice stay.

These were the last members of the generation above me and now they are gone.

I am not sitting here collapsing into a puddle of tears. These two beloved people were elderly and in failing health. I have laid my brother (only sib), father, and mother to rest, all after horrific accidents and/or illnesses. I don’t think I can put this into eloquent language but relief was in the mix of emotions I felt with those deaths. I remember CRYING while shopping in the PLUM MARKET right after my mom died. Not because I missed her (in that moment anyway) but because for a couple months I was sorta stuck in the yooperland and I had often wondered (ridiculously!) if I’d ever see the Plum Market again. Things get weird. (And NOW I can’t don’t go to the Plum because COVID.)

I am intimately familiar with my aunt’s children because I grew up with them summers at the moominbeach, even in the same cabin for my first six years of life, and we still meet up there. I knew my uncle’s children pretty well but didn’t see them that often. Facebook drives me CRAZY in so many ways but I have to give it credit for reconnecting me to them. Especially to the youngest one, Maija. I never got to know her well at all when we were kids. I interacted more with her big brothers. Come to find out we are DOPPELGANGERS! Both in our appearance and in the way we can just about finish each other’s sentences.

As much as I miss all of my aunts and uncles as individuals, what I’m thinking about now is the times we were all together when they were young and all of us kids were running around like crazy.

I would be remiss not to say that Bubs (aunt) and Grumpus (uncle) each leave behind a spouse and they are also family so it’s a bit of a misnomer to say that their generation is totally gone. I don’t know how many years either of these spouses have left but I hope it isn’t COVID that does them in.

STAY HOME!!!

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 19th, 2020 at 6:06 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.