Pandemic, Week 83 ( )

This week, the House approved the temporary debt ceiling increase. The US announced that it will be reopening the borders for non-essential travel to Canada and Mexico next month (proof of vaccination will be required). 10,000 John Deere workers went on strike demanding larger shares of the company's recent record profits. William Shatner, aka Star Trek's Captain Kirk, completed a sub-orbital space trip on Amazon founder Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin rocket, making him, at 90, the oldest person to reach space. A British bakery is being forced to stop selling a number of treats that use American-made sprinkles which include a color that is  banned from sprinkle use in the UK; the baker has instituted a sprinkle strike in retaliation. 

The world reached a total of 241.1 million COVID cases and 4.9 million deaths this week of which the US accounted for 45.8 million cases and 744,000 deaths. 219 million Americans (66 percent) have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 189 million (57 percent) are fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, Texas Governor Greg Abbot banned all state entities, including private employers, from enforcing vaccine mandates.

We spent our week having a lot of family time – playing games, watching movies, admiring Owen's Dr. Who costume – as we prepared to say goodbye to our friend. She was a smart, funny, strong and beautiful 13-year-old that struggled with anxiety and depression during the Pandemic, and died by suicide two and half weeks ago. Her memorial service was held at our Meeting House on Friday, and as is the Quaker tradition, people spoke when moved to. Nora – who considered her a big sister and had been her sidekick on so many adventures and experiences – was one of the first. While the prior speakers focused on the loss and the grief that we have all been feeling, Nora instead talked about how mad they were that everyone was hanging their heads in sadness and focussing on the moment our friend took her life, rather than the amazing person she was. Nora went on to describe some of their favorite memories together – which included laughing and playing, but also talking about things they didn't want to share with anyone else, and somehow (I'm still not clear on this) also included flying turtle bats – and how much more she was than that one, fatal moment. I think for everyone at the Meeting, Nora's words helped remind us to focus on all the things we loved about our friend and all the things we would take away from having known her. Because knowing her was a gift.

Earlier in the week, I went to a session for the parents of the kids affected by her death, and how to help them in their grief. And the one thing that stayed with me most (aside from, hydrate), is that joy and grief co-exist. While there will be times when we miss our friend so much it hurts, there will also be times when we laugh and smile, either because it's something that would have made her laugh and smile too, or just because we need to. And that's how it should be.

So we spent a lot of time together as a family this week which involved a fair amount of laughing; and we spent a lot of time thinking about our friend this week, which involved some tears. And we're ok, but we still really miss our friend.

(To see this week's pictures, click here.)

If you or someone you know is thinking about ending their life, call 1-800-273-8255 or text SHARE to 741741 for free, 24/7 crisis counseling.