Sadness

Hello All,

This week has been a difficult one. One of my dear friends lost her 10 year old daughter to Covid. I am not breaking any privacy rules – my friend and her husband have been interviewed for both TV and print to talk about this terrible disease and the loss of Teresa.

Teresa was both kind and caring – spitfire and diva – a beautiful soul – the sister who her brothers loved and protected – and the light of her family’s life. She had so far to go in life – so much to do. Who knows what she would have become, what else she could have accomplished, the impact she could have made? She had the energy and light to rule the world.

Her family did everything right. Everyone who could be vaccinated was. They wore their masks. They washed their hands. They social distanced. They homeschooled last year, like everyone else did. They worked to protect each other and the people they came into contact with.

This dreaded disease has taken so many – too, too many. How many people do we have to lose? How come we all can’t take the simple precautions to keep each other and our children safe?

And now we are entering flu season as well. Wear a mask. Socially distance. Wash your hands. Get your flu shot. Get your Covid vaccine. Be a role model to our collective children – by modeling these behaviors, not by yelling at school board meetings or being rude to people who are doing their best to save you and your family and themselves. These are not difficult things to do.

There are absolutely no words to take the pain away. There may be words that perhaps can comfort. A saying on an old Irish tombstone offers this – “Death leaves a heartache no one can heal. Love leaves a memory no one can steal.” Richard Fife wrote this poem “No one is ever truly alone”:

“No one is ever truly alone. Those who live no more, whom we loved, echo still within our thoughts, our words, our hearts. And what they did – and who they were – become a part of all that we are. Forever.”

I hope my friend and her family remember the joy and love that Teresa brought to their lives and others. I hope they find peace.

Say a prayer. Never miss a chance to say “I love you.”

Phyl