I want to share with you a post from a friend of mine, Kate Clemente. Kate is struggling with the pain of how the COVID has affected her and her mom. With her permission, I have posted her story below.
Each day Kate Clemente posts an update on her mom on Facebook, who tested positive for the coronavirus. Each day, I empathize with her pain, struggle, and the dilemma of what a day is. I read the separation she and her mom are going through and how they miss each other. “Isolation is hard,” says Kate; she only calls or video chat for a few minutes a day. I can feel her sentiment of vulnerability, worried, and shakiness. “It feels like a nightmare.”
I step into her shoes and cry with her as I read the posts. For a few minutes, each day, my heartbreaks, and a flood of empathy fills my soul. It makes me think about how precious life is and how we should be grateful for what we have acquired in life. I admire her openness and love for humanity. I am so thankful to call her friend.
During these dark times, Kate also writes of love and happiness. You can feel the love of a daughter full of hope for her mom. Her mom is the world to her. Also, I respect the encouragement from her friends, sending them both love and prayers. Kate is optimistic in a word of darkness.
This virus is real, scary, and is always changing without notice. Please take pre-caution seriously and stay safe because change can happen to anyone at any time. ~Diadel Kimberlee
Sending love and healing prayers to all affected by this virus.💜
Mom update: she’s improving medically! Her oxygen saturation (amount of oxygen in her blood) remains up, and she has had to have less oxygen delivered to her.
The most horrendous thing about this virus is the isolation, which causes a deprivation of physical contact with those you need most around you to heal. It’s frustrating and saddening to me, but to my mom and all the patients kept in the COVID units, it’s akin to solitary confinement. I think there will be a lot of talk about survivors needing to overcome depression and PTSD.
It is not like in the movies, where the characters get to see and communicate with their loved ones through a glass wall or reach their hand into a rubber glove built into the wall. I cannot see my mom except through a screen. I cannot hold her hand or even press my hand to a glass wall as she does the same on the other side. We are cut off from one another… It’s been 11 days… to me a year to her an eternity… it’s as if she disappeared into another dimension when they wheeled her through the hospital doors.
I get how confining it is to be home with your family, but the alternative is unbearable… In the moments of irritation or exasperation that you feel toward your loved one, try to picture them alone and you on the outside… try to overcome petty annoyance… because I can tell you… NONE OF THAT SHIT MATTERS…If your loved one suddenly falls sick and is taken away from you, you will kick yourself for the times you fought or didn’t tell them that you loved them or criticized them… So when you feel like yelling or rolling your eyes, try to hug or hold hands instead… I guarantee you, you will never regret kindness or connection, compassion, or love…
As mom was wheeled away, I yelled I LOVE YOU at her and made her look at me, take my hand and say it back because I knew I wanted us to say that to one another… in case… I’m glad I did because even though I KNOW, I will see her again, I wanted her to be left with love…
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