Item
My Second COVID Christmas
Title (Dublin Core)
My Second COVID Christmas
Description (Dublin Core)
My wife and I just had our second COVID Christmas, this time with my mom's side of the family. Because very few on that side can work remotely, almost everyone has had and survived COVID due to work exposures over the past six months. Until we're able to secure vaccines, I also expect at least some of us will have to endure a second round of illness. Having Christmas in January was a strange experience, much like Baseball in November from 2001. I'm glad we finally got to assemble for a few days, and I appreciated most everyone's responsibility with their conduct. My sister is a nurse and treats the pandemic with too little respect. Although she's potentially outside her immunization period, she still acts as though she's chock full of antibodies capable of defeating every new identified strain. AND, she waited until we'd all been together for a full day to reveal her boyfriend has had COVID symptoms for a few days but refuses to be tested. Beyond the drama and anxiety that inspired, I'm grateful to have seen my grandmother, and I'll be even more grateful to know that she doesn't develop signs or symptoms of illness in the coming days.
The lesson I learned from this family function is that I can't trust those closest to me to candidly assess the risks those pose to the rest of us. They can't differentiate between their right to make their own health choices and my right to do the same. My understanding was that we had all been sufficiently careful for several weeks to ensure no one would bring COVID to the Christmas celebration, and I was wrong. My bad. I promise it won't happen again, and I won't attend another family function without being vaccinated first, at least not with my sister or a clear, deliberate, and sworn confirmation that everyone I see has been sufficiently cautious. This entire pandemic at this point for me is a balance between mental and physical health, and it turns out they can't both win.
The lesson I learned from this family function is that I can't trust those closest to me to candidly assess the risks those pose to the rest of us. They can't differentiate between their right to make their own health choices and my right to do the same. My understanding was that we had all been sufficiently careful for several weeks to ensure no one would bring COVID to the Christmas celebration, and I was wrong. My bad. I promise it won't happen again, and I won't attend another family function without being vaccinated first, at least not with my sister or a clear, deliberate, and sworn confirmation that everyone I see has been sufficiently cautious. This entire pandemic at this point for me is a balance between mental and physical health, and it turns out they can't both win.
Date (Dublin Core)
January 31, 2021
Event Identifier (Dublin Core)
HST580
Partner (Dublin Core)
Arizona State University
Type (Dublin Core)
text
Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)
English
Home & Family Life
English
Healthcare
English
Emotion
English
Health & Wellness
English
Events
English
Social Distance
English
Pandemic Skeptics
Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)
anxiety
trust
vaccine
mental health
family function
symptom
COVID-19
drama
Contributor's Tags (a true folksonomy) (Friend of a Friend)
HST580
Arizona State University
Christmas
holiday
tradition
belated
postponed
celebration
family
reckless
Collection (Dublin Core)
Holidays
en
Survivor Stories
Linked Data (Dublin Core)
Date Submitted (Dublin Core)
01/31/2021
Date Modified (Dublin Core)
02/01/2021
08/02/2022
09/15/2024
Date Created (Dublin Core)
01/31/2021
This item was submitted on January 31, 2021 by [anonymous user] using the form “Share Your Story” on the site “A Journal of the Plague Year”: https://covid-19archive.org/s/archive
Click here to view the collected data.