My run-in with a maskless idiot at the grocery store

[Moostache]

53. Thank you for the kindness...

My immediate family has been coping with this in isolation from each other still...due to COVID concerns and travel restrictions and the idea of trying to navigate arrangements for people from as far apart as Florida and Alaska, we are in a sustained state of suspended animation...

Mom requested that there be no wake or viewing and wished to be cremated, so we have honored her wishes, but we are unable to get closure or start healing because we cannot get finalization on her Memorial Mass or services and the rest - the lack of intimate closure and final in-person good byes - will never be filled in. I will carry that hole in my heart with me the rest of my days and there is nothing that anyone can do to fill it now. I'll learn to live with it, it hurts a little less acutely every day, so I know that in the cruel passage of time, the anguish will fade to be less immediate, less present than it is now.

It is made all the worse by the stories and photos and experiences of those who refuse to wear masks or insist that COVID is overblown as a concern and not as serious as it is.

One day, I will have what passes for peace, when the entire 24 hours will pass without a reminder of this horror show...but that day feels a long, long way off right now...