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Showing Original Post only (View all)I Had to Explain to My 96-Year-Old Father Yesterday [View all]
why I wouldn't be flying out to California this week. My mother, who is the same age, has severe dementia, and doesn't recognize my father any longer. She probably will not live much longer. My father is heartbroken, of course, and was hoping I could fly out there right away. I so wish I could, but I cannot.
He finally understood when I explained that flying out there in the midst of the worst period in the COVID-19 pandemic would mean exposing myself to the virus at the airport, in the plane, at another airport, at the car rental facility, in the car I rented, which might or might not be fully sanitized. I said, besides that, I have no idea whether I might already have the virus but without symptoms yet.
So, I told him, if I fly out there, I could easily catch the virus in any of those places and bring it to your house and pass it along to my mother and father. Or, I could catch it on the return trip and bring it home to my wife. I explained that it hurt very much not to come and see my mother for maybe the last time, but I could do nothing to help the situation while I was there, and might give them the virus or bring it home with me to infect my own wife. I told him that I loved them and my wife too much to possibly give them a deadly disease or to give that disease to my wife. I explained that it is just too dangerous for everyone involved.
He got it, finally. He would make the same decision, he said, and he told me he understood, and agreed with my decision. I told him that I would be out there as soon as I got both doses of the vaccine. Since I'm 75 years old and live in a major metro area, I should be among the second group to receive the vaccine, and I will be in line for it as soon as I possibly can. I hope my mother is still around. If I went now, she might not have a chance to be.
Now that I'm seeing photos of crowded airports in Chicago and Phoenix, I feel even more certain that it would be unsafe for me to travel at this time. I hate that. I also know that I am not alone in having to make very, very difficult decisions right now. That helps a little, but doesn't get rid of the pain.
COVID Sucks!