I published an article in the Well section of the The New York Times today. The article, In Our Pandemic Isolation, Every Death Is a Covid Death, describes a very personal experience as a very close friend died of cancer, and how isolating it can feel in a COVID environment.
“I’m dying. I’ve been dying for the last year.” I heard her words a few weeks ago, and knew them to be true.
In summer of 2019, my friend Mel told me the brutal headaches she had been having were a brain tumor, and that she would begin treatment immediately. I felt a tilting sensation in my stomach, the kind you have when your body instinctively understands something your mind will not accept. She told me not to search for “glioblastoma” on “Dr. Google,” but I couldn’t resist. My breath caught. It was what stole John McCain and Beau Biden so quickly, their family’s grief so raw and public.
Lauryn Hill’s voice sang, “Ready or not, here I come, you can’t hide …”