Self-Isolation Day #26

"Spy Wednesday" of Holy Week, Self-Isolation Day #26

Please continue to pray for my husband's mother D. on a ventilator in ICU with confirmed COVID-19. We very much appreciate it, even though we are choosing not to give detailed, blow-by-blow health updates in this public forum.

Morning basket time: poetry

Morning basket time: penmanship

After school, the crew enjoyed outdoor time, including climbing trees, swinging, and riding bikes before the all night thunderstorms and warm rain.

Four-year-old climbing the magnolia

I'm so grateful to have a large yard and quiet neighborhood streets where, thus far, we are not being fined $1,000 for failing to wear a mask while enjoying the great outdoors, far away from anyone outside our family (as is now legislated in some areas of our country). We have our own playground and our own woods, but what of all the poor families who have four walls of a small apartment? Now closed are playgrounds, basketball courts, tennis courts--but not golf courses for the wealthy!--hiking trails, state parks, and probably more sites of outdoor recreation. In some areas, people stepping foot outdoors are being followed by drones ("Go indoors. We are all in this together!"). Our family's isolation is not much more than an "inconvenience," but I worry much about the vaster part of the citizenry (including some relatives and loved ones) for whom it is a grave entrapment.

Our resident shutterbug was excited when I offered he could take the ten-episode Nikon photography course online, which is being offered for free through the end of April. Much or most of the information is generally applicable, not just to Nikon cameras. John has started spending much time outdoors and during different lighting periods taking photos, which I can hardly wait to share!

Using my 10+ year-old DSLR

Little siblings using an old point-and-click

COVID-19 patients are all alone, so Chris' mother's ICU (and I hope others!) allow loved ones to call in and Facetime via the iPad owned by the ICU. Chris has been talking to his sedated mother as many days as the harried nurses can set it up for him. Tonight we prayed our family rosary over the phone to D., which was a precious time for us, as his mother has faithfully prayed her rosary daily for so many decades.

Bonus Reading for Posterity:

• More interesting stats confirming the same: 99% of Those Who Died From Virus Had Other Illness, Italy Says. Acknowledging that does not mean I don't care about our delicate loved ones, it just means it is much better news than a virus that kills indiscriminately the immunocompromised and those hearty and hale. I count what blessings I can.
• More evidence strengthening suspicions of deception: Evidence from Wuhan’s morgues, crematoriums suggests COVID-19 deaths 20 times higher than official count. With videos released from China showing how sick people (those simply with a fever) were taken from their homes by force (that means guns) and now videos showing what certainly appears to be COVID patients being shot to death (cheaper than treatment), I am chilled to read of the WHO suggesting other countries, like the USA, follow suit, "forcing" those testing positive for COVID into some kind of government location.
• Hospitals have been closed to all visitors for weeks now: My heart was torn to learn that a neighbors' son got into a moped accident this week and is on life support, but his bereft parents are not allowed to so much as enter the building. It's not just COVID patients who are dying alone all over this country. First, certain hospitals began disallowing husbands to attend their laboring wives and now I'm seeing the first hospital requiring all laboring mothers to have an epidural "because of COVID-19." Medical care that is considered "not essential" is suspended and we're not just talking about my kids not being able to get their braces off (one kid!) or on (the other kid!): we're talking about scans for cancerous tumors, pain management for those enduring extreme pain, diabetes management. My son has a condition which requires a specialized surgery involving coordination among specialists (possibly across the country), but that condition is now being delayed indefinitely as "not essential." I'm glad for medical staff who have jobs caring for COVID patients but I imagine that the thousands of medical professionals (and administrative workers and cleaning staff . . .) who have been laid off because they treat anything else other than COVID wish they were also considered essential.
• Now here is an idea I'm thrilled to see put into action! A diocese has established a group of younger, healthy priests who are the ones who will respond to all the COVID-19 calls for last rites! FIRST RESPONDERS: CHICAGO CREATES SPECIAL CADRE OF PRIESTS TO MINISTER TO COVID-19 PATIENTS