Coronavirus Strikes At My Heart

My best friend Mary passed away today from COVID-19. She'd been battling cancer for the last 10 years, first breast cancer and then pancreatic, so her immune system was in poor shape from the cancer treatments. That gave the virus an opening.

We've known each other almost 45 years. She was "best woman" at my wedding 35 years ago, and I was "best bride's man" at hers. We met at Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour where she worked. We could spend hours on the phone chatting and served as plus one when neither of us was dating somebody.

She was a little thing, more than a foot shorter than me, with a heart as big as the sky. She leaves behind a husband and three kids as well as a lot of people that loved her.

I will miss her.

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wendy davis's picture

as well as and her husband and chirren's, edg.

losing a mum seems too hard to bear, as it's said to be 'out of age order'; i hope they were almost-adults (but i'm bad at arithmetic as per your post).

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I am so sorry she is gone, and sorry there are many grieving people, including you and her husband.
May Mary rest in peace.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

thanatokephaloides's picture

Nothing is ever forgotten.

Mary deserves to be remembered, and she will be, because of you.

"No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee."

-- John Donne, 'Devotions upon Emergent Occasions', Meditation 17, 1623.
source

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Roy Blakeley's picture

who will be missed by many. My deepest sympathy.

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Granma's picture

I'm sorry for you, her family and her friends losing a much loved woman too soon.

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yellopig's picture

We go on and on here about the political & economic implications of this pandemic. It's appropriate to be reminded that those impacts are not the only, nor even the most important, effects.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

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“We may not be able to change the system, but we can make the system irrelevant in our lives and in the lives of those around us.”—John Beckett

Raggedy Ann's picture

my condolences to you and those in her circle.

No one will be untouched by the pandemic. Sad

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Lookout's picture

As with the 1918 flu I expect over a million deaths especially as the virus takes hold in India and the 3rd world.

You should mourn death, but celebrate your special relationship. Treasure those special moments together. Best wishes for you and her family.

Sorry I can't find of cut of Lotus singing his song from a Wordsworth poem, but here's a nice version.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvV0U490t7I]

He didn't use all the stanzas. Here's the poem in full:

A Psalm of Life
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

What The Heart Of The Young Man Said To The Psalmist.

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,— act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

smiley7's picture

losing a best friend is when the river runs deep. Hugs to you.

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The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.