Thanksgiving 2020

2020 Thanksgiving what can I say... Mixed feelings.

First of all, I am very thankful for this day, for having excellent food, shelter, and love. I am thankful for my family and friends, so many have reached out with loving thoughts and support. I am Thankful for the Medical team that we lucked into by being in the Tri-Cities.

I saw the huge lines of people who have never needed help in the lines for food this year, I know many are having difficulty paying rent and feeding their families. I was reminded we have been lucky.

I've watched people who have very little risk of dying or becoming seriously ill from Covid lose their businesses and fear for their own security.

Mostly I am thankful to know I will be spending this day with Joe and that it appears he is responding well to his cancer treatments. We will be spending it together alone, not due to Inslee's mandates, but because we are adults capable of knowing cases are up, Joe's white blood cells are down and it is our responsibility to keep him safe.

There is no question it has been one of the most difficult years of my life. My personal challenge has been to remain grateful and calm during this year.

Some of the biggest challenges have been accepting not only Joe's diagnosis but also experiencing it through the Covid crisis.

March through August Joe was considered an essential employee and for that, we were thankful to have our livelihood. He went to work every day long before we knew what the survival rates of Covid would be and who was the most at risk.

When his diagnosis came in Aug, he heard the news alone in a doctor's office, because of the response to Covid. As medical professionals struggled to understand the type and spread of his cancer he endured test after test and heard the results alone.

He had his PET Scan alone and went to view the results alone as well. Each time having to both digest the news and explain it to me as well. While I was allowed to attend some appointments the rules were inconsistent and mostly he went alone.

We watched protests, riots, and more play out and some continued to insist they were justified, but I had to sit in my car on the day we learned Joe's cancer had spread to his brain and they wanted him to go to the ER... Alone.

I've watched the politicians who are enforcing mandates on all of us justify why some rules apply to some and not others especially themselves.

I think some of the hardest moments have come when some have held up these rules as thoughtful and caring and seemed to be patting themselves on the back for how caring they are of others, how much compassion they have, and asking you to show compassion in the same way.

A friend of mine lost his wife to a stroke and sat in his car while she passed alone in the ER.

These are difficult times, Joe and I are not alone in having a serious health crisis made more difficult by the response to Covid. He is not given a 99 percent chance at survival, yet we have an abundance of hope.

Let's stop pretending Covid is the only disease that is impacted by human behavior and that it is the only disease that currently matters.

Happy Thanksgiving 2020.

@whatsup