I lost another friend to COVID today... and it hurts like hell.
These past two years have been the most rollercoaster my life has ever been. Nothing is like is was before and the worst of it is that my kids' lives have gone into a "pause" effect. Just before we went into lockdown in March 2020 here in South Africa, my husband and I both got VERY sick, to the point that I thought he was going to die. My boss had been overseas and had come back sick and infected our whole office. At that stage Covid was only a rumor, the doctors didn't even know the symptoms so we didn't realize that this was in fact what we were ill from. I'd never been that sick in my life. My fears though, were for my kids and my father who were also living in the house. Luckily we mostly kept away from them, but I still had to go to work every day, as sick as I was. By the grace of God we both recovered, even after hubby's fever spiked for 5 days and he landed in hospital on a drip that broke the fever. We were not even fully recovered yet when the country went into full lockdown 2 weeks later.
2020 Lockdown was heaven for me. I'd been feeling so drained at work, especially after being ill, and now I was able to work from home, in a calm environment, knowing my family was safe and cared for. Being an extrovert, I found the first month without people contact rather hard, but soon settled into the whole Zoom and whatsapp groups thing. Not to blow my own horn, but I thrived. I got more work done at home, got to spend quality time with my family and worked on my sidelines that had been laying dormant for years. Even during this first wave, as we heard of people dyeing, we had not lost any family or friends, so the impact was less.
A few months later the companies started retrenching their workers, and I too went this route. I was lucky to have a pension fund to fall back on, so I helped my husband build his business and worked on my sidelines. By now the kids were going back to school - something I feared with every bone of my body. I'd kept my babies safe from this thing for so long and now the government was exposing them to my fears without me being able to do anything about it. It took many a prayer session to get me to the point of accepting my youngest's having to go back (my eldest homeschooled) and to my surprise it went very well. By now we were going through wave 2 of Covid... and suddenly I lost my first friend. I'd chatted to her via Whatsapp just two days before, surprised to hear she was in hospital as I didn't even know she was sick. Two days later I got the call and my world pivoted. My first Covid loss.
2021 came out swinging and I absolutely hate this year. My kids have no kid-experiences, masks cover our smiles and we fear being near other people. People are suffering due to loss of incomes. As I write this we are stuck in the third wave of Covid here and it feels like this one is coming after us with everything its got. I've lost 3 friends in 2 weeks and have one more currently in the ICU. My eyes are sore from crying and my knees are calloused from praying. I don't have the words anymore. It feels like we are loosing this battle. Yet, many more have recovered than have died and for that I know that God is listening. My heart is just so sore for the ones I am loosing and once again I have a fear for my own family's safety, because now even the kids are getting it.
I pray, wherever you are, that the Lord will keep you safe from this thing. But most of all... make sure you are right with God, now, before anything bad happens.
Stay safe
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