My uncle, who I mentioned in my last post, died last Sunday due to complications from his stroke. It was another blow to the family as we are still recovering from the sudden passing of my cousin last March. That’s two deaths in the same house—our house—in just a matter of four months.
With the current situation, so much has changed with how we are dealing with this loss. The family decided to have a wake, even when most of us couldn’t be there physically to pay our last respects for obvious reasons. I only went to see him last Monday, prayed in front of his coffin, and left. I can’t even sit for a while to comfort my aunt and my cousin because I’m trying so much to limit my interaction with people.
A mass was offered to him last night, and many of us just watched it on FB Live. I wanted so much to go there but realized that if I’ll only be there for 15 minutes at most, I thought it would be better I just stay home.
The Covid scare is hitting closer and closer to home. As a standard procedure, the hospital did a postmortem swab testing on my uncle and quite frankly, it left us all a nervous wreck since. As I’ve said, my aunt (the widow) complained last week of loss of taste and fever, so we dread the possibility. Mommy is on a constant watch; we ask her to tell us at once if she feels anything. We’re not even allowing the boys to go downstairs and had been reminding them to wash their hands many times a day.
Thankfully my uncle’s swab test turned out negative, but it doesn’t mean that we can put our guards down. We all heard of frightening stories of community spread and how people who are high-risk and with comorbidities should take extra caution.
Meanwhile, my uncle is scheduled to be cremated this morning, but it didn’t push through because the cremator in the city crematorium gave out. The bodies that were supposed to be cremated yesterday are still in the queue. We don’t know when the operations will resume and if they will have to go to a private crematorium where it’s more expensive. What we know is that the wake is extended indefinitely.
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But the troubles didn’t stop there. Another cousin was rushed to the hospital last Wednesday after she complained of weakness and body pains. Once again, the first hospital where she was rushed to had no availability, so they schlepped her to another. She’s currently confined because she shows signs of pneumonia and the infectious disease doctor went on and treated her as if it’s Covid so the symptoms would not worsen. A swab test was done and we’re still waiting for the results anytime soon. If the swab test is positive, their entire household will be placed on quarantine. The last news I heard is that she’s intubated because she’s having a hard time breathing.
The thing that concerns me most and brought me to tears last night is the fact that my younger brother frequents my cousin’s house and was even there when my cousin was brought to the hospital that morning. But even while all of us are worried sick because of what’s happening, he refuses to stay home. I’ve had it with him because he doesn’t listen to us anymore and can’t be told what to do. He still overstays at my uncle’s wake without even worrying about the possibility of getting infected. He doesn’t care about himself or any of us. Not for his senior mother, not even for his little kids.
Frankly, we cannot afford it if any of us gets hospitalized Covid-related or not. It will just be too much for us to handle.
It has gotten us so fearful that even if we’re not big believers of customs and superstitions, but when a dentist-friend suggested we put red ribbons all around the house supposedly to drive away bad luck and avoid more misfortune, we actually did it.
All I can really do now, aside from staying home and being extra watchful of my Mom and my nephews, is to pray to God that we’ll be spared. The president had just delivered his address this morning, and nothing was said to alleviate our fears or give us a sense of ease. He said to be patient and wait for the coronavirus vaccine from China which will probably be available by December.
This is the same person who vowed to win the war on drugs in six months so good luck to us.
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