Reading an
article in Time magazine about how to support Older Relatives during the corona
virus pandemic...
I am the older relative and understand the danger of a
compromised immune system. My real concern is my 23 year old granddaughter who
THINKS she is practicing social distancing, but is truly putting her own life
at risk as well as the people she is casually interacting with. She has been a
lifelong asthmatic.
If she contracts Covid-19, she could die. But she doesn’t
thinks so. And nobody is going to tell her otherwise.
She is
considered an essential worker in a healthcare environment, and her workplace
is taking precautions to limit her interaction with the patient population. But
she still travels back and forth from home to her boyfriend’s family house. She
orders take-out meals for the households and to support our local small businesses.
It’s all very humane and generous.
It is the community support that just might
lead to exposure. I worry and not needlessly.
At this
time, this pandemic has not peeked. The worst is yet to come according to the
medical experts. I believe them. I have survived the loss of parents, a cancer
treatment, thriving through an immune disease, the betrayal of a family friend
and many more emotional assaults.
I do not believe I could survive watching my daughter
lose her daughter because she refused to pay attention to a warning of concern
for her own well-being.
We
suggested she pick a place to stay until things calm down, the curve flattens
out. She dismissed that, repeating “I’m only going back and forth.” That’s not true.
She and her boyfriend are doing what they naturally should be doing a young
couple in love. I remember all too well the comfort of being in lust and love.
I married at 18 and by the time I was their age, I had 2 kids and a mortgage. Life
and all the trappings that go with it was all too real.
This is a
difficult time on a lot of different levels. With the years of life us ‘old
heads’ have under our belt it is difficult for the younger ones to believe our
warnings could hold any weight of truth or experience. Life has been very good
to this generation. With the exception of 911, many of this generation has not
experienced the threat of potential disaster. Staying home is not a hardship if it could be life-saving.
My fear is that has made them
cocksure and soft.
