The Weight of COVID-19
I am thinking of one more deficit, another unmet need. Too many people are grieving the loss of a loved one, unable to hold a proper funeral. Too often this grief is unnoticed. We look away, busy with our own lives, afraid of the mounting horror. At least I do. Let us try now to stare it in the face.
I write this two days after the daily Covid-19 death toll reached 4,462, a new record high, the milestone largely forgotten in the noise of rioting and impeachment. Now stop and imagine with me the final departure of 4,462 souls, more than three per minute. They are lined up like jets on a runway. Every 19 seconds, another one rises up out of sight. Each one was once a little boy or girl, someone who got scared in the night and went looking for a hand to hold. Have you ever walked into a child’s room at night and listened closely to make sure they were still breathing? Nineteen seconds. Here and gone. No visitors in the room.
Now imagine everyone who loved those 4,462 people. What if they could safely gather? You’d need the largest stadium in the world. Every seat would be filled. What if all those people cried at once? Can you imagine the sound?
I know someone who cries in the shower, sometimes quietly, sometimes with full-on convulsive sobs. The wails are muffled by the curtain and the door, and the noise of falling water, but sometimes the sound still escapes. The shower is a good place to cry. She says this cascade of water feels like the right amount of tears.
Another soul, and another, floating up toward God. An astonishing number of departures. Our Covid-19 death toll may reach 500,000 in February. Larger than the population of Atlanta. Imagine that. My favorite city, with everyone gone. Five Points station, deserted. The playground empty at Centennial Olympic Park. Half a million people dead, and the rest of us damaged in ways we don’t yet understand.
From Are you OK? I’m not
references
- Lake, Thomas. `Are You OK? I'm Not.` CNN, Warner Media, 22 Jan. 2021, [https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/22/opinions/mental-health-pandemic-the-distance-lake/index.html].