Carla passed away from Covid yesterday afternoon, right around the time that we were gathering for our virtual Sunday night dinner. Carla is Bob’s cousin – a potter extraordinaire! We have a few of her pieces including this one we use everyday on our island for our fruit. I remember an incredible conversation I had with her one Thanksgiving about having special needs kids. She had a son who had dysautonomia and passed away as a young adult. Edda had been diagnosed for many years by then, but I was still struggling with so much grief and she helped me out that afternoon and, then, of course, everyday from then on.
Jeremy is grocery shopping once a week for us and for my parents. Yes, he’s wearing a mask (which he just decided to to for this week, he didn’t last week). He just came back from Whole Foods where they have signs saying not to buy more than 2 of certain things which is completely understandable, but he’s like – argh! I’m buying for two families for a week. I gotta buy enough so I don’t have to come back. Jeremy, though he didn’t sleep well last night, seems, to me, to be working ok. He has three one-hour meetings today and his work seems to be as busy as ever.
I’m off-kilter. I called my work at the hospital on Friday expecting that they’d be swamped, but the opposite is true. They are quiet. Census is low because they cancelled all the elective surgery and DC seems to be controlling contagion well, so I’m going to be off the unit for an entire month. I was scheduled to be off for the next two weeks for our spring break. My charge was like – we are OK, just stay home Doris. I thought I’d be going in, so it took mental energy to prepare to go in and then I had to release it when they said to stay home. All those health care professionals in NYC! Of course I’m reading the articles, of course I’m crying & scared. I know Carla’s unit was swamped (they are a suburb of NYC) because the family could barely get brief daily updates. Because I’m so freaked out, I can’t concentrate on my completely non-body fluid job very well. I can sit in front of the computer for hours looking at chemical formulas and thinking nothing. I am also doing weird things like making homemade bagels – I had to go all the way to DC to see Lauren (from 6 feet away) to get 8 tablespoons of yeast because the grocery stores are all out.
And pickling. I made pickles.
Edda is fine, we are losing all our childcare today. Kitachi, who was off for two weeks because schools are emergently closed, had to go back to work at a daycare center for essential workers. It seemed prudent to have her not come anymore. So we are trying to readjust that. We’ve been in touch with her teachers who are figuring out how to deliver special needs curriculum virtually.
Max, enjoying my “quarantine” bed.
Oh I am so glad to see something written here today. I’ve been really worried about ya’ll. I had to Stop watching the news and reading all that caca. I cannot do anything about it so I just try to control the things I can. Otherwise, I freak out and get really sad and really depressed. I am so sorry about Carla. You talked to me about her before and she sounded like an amazing person. She’s be really happy that you have that beautiful bowl. Protect yourself and your beautiful family. We love you.