The first person I knew that had the virus was a member of my church who contracted it in March of 2020 and died of it in April of that year.

It all happened so fast. She was living in an assisted living facility and got transferred to a hospital, and just weeks later she was dead. Besides the shock and sadness, I found myself trying to remember the last time I had seen her in church and whether she could have had the virus then.

Sometime after that there was a flurry of cases, including my grandson and his girlfriend, who we hadn’t seen for awhile because he no longer lived closeby.

She took longer to recover, sleeping, most of the time. John had some numbness in his fingers and lost his sense of taste and smell but finally recovered. Neither was sick enough to require hospitalization.

My friend Leisha and her four children, two of whom were in college, all had mild cases of the virus because they had been vaccinated. Only her husband was not affected.

I became worried about friends of mine who were elderly and had some health issues so I called the ones I hadn’t been in recent touch with. One was Jim Hasson who at one time worked on my uncle’s farm. He was in his 90s and had fond memories of Callicoon Center.

Even though he was still driving short distances he was trying to get his son or daughter to find time to bring him to Callicoon Center for a visit.

Someone answered his phone and when I asked for Jim Hasson, the man who answered said he was Jim Hasson. It turned out to be Jim Hasson’s son and it was too late for the elder Jim to get to Callicoon Center because he had died of covid.

I keep in touch with a cousin of mine who is quite a bit younger than I. I recently learned that everyone in his household, except his grandson, had covid and his wife was still recovering at home from pneumonia.

A schoolmate of mine who is in a nursing home recently developed covid. She and nine others were moved to another building for a few weeks. Some had been vaccinated and some weren’t. I cannot understand the reasoning of those who are against vaccination, but I have decided that along with politics and religion, it is not a good idea to discuss vaccination.

I recently heard of a relative of a friend of mine, who didn’t believe in vaccination, making fun of his wife who WAS vaccinated and still developed covid while he didn’t. A few days later he collapsed at work and was taken by ambulance to the emergency room. He has covid and had to be put on a respirator. This was over a month ago and he is still on it. However, he is expected to recover since he is only in his mid 50s.