Pneumonia in someone almost seventy was already a cause for concern. However, COVID-19 in someone almost seventy, with a history of diabetes, obesity, and high blood pressure, coupled with pneumonia...
Around that time, the country's leaders and doctors were warning against travel, particularly by plane. More concerned with our safety, my father and stepmom requested that my husband and I remain home. Part of me wanted to get on the first available flight, consequences be damned. The larger part of me did not want to stress their recovery with worries about their impulsive child. So we honored the fourteen day isolation period.
My father and I were repairing a relationship that suffered a few trials and tribulations early on. With time and a few tough conversations, we had successfully bridged the chasm between us and had become close. He was the person most like me on the planet. Same smile, similar senses of humor, same cleft chin. A cousin once looked at me wide-eyed and exclaimed that talking to me was like talking to a female version of my dad. While I suspect that it was not meant to be a compliment, the more I got to know my dad, the higher praise those words became.
Thanksgiving of 2020, my father and stepmom came down to visit my husband and me. We spent a very lovely week together just hanging out. We talked, played Beat Saber-a game my dad loved, cooked, ate, fellowshipped and loved on each other. Before the end of the trip, my dad declared that it was the BEST VACATION EVER!!! For someone who had been to Aruba and countless other vacation destinations, that he considered chilling with the wife and kids in our home the best said a lot about the things he treasured.
A science fiction fan, he and my husband shared a love of Star Wars. My husband would excitedly speak about the animated Clone Wars series and my father would listen as he tried to summarize a half dozen seasons worth of storyline into their conversation. I found this beautiful, glossy, colorful book detailing the who's who in the Clone Wars series. Initially, I thought to purchase it for my husband but in the end, I gave it to my dad. My hope was that if he never watched the animated series, he could look through the book, and start to identify some of the characters that my hubby tried to bring to life in his retelling.
As it turns out, my father never got to see the book. It arrived at his home the evening that he was admitted to the hospital. Fourteen days later, on the day his isolation period concluded, my dad died as a result of COVID-19 related pneumonia.
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