I’ve been trying to figure out how to express this but words simply escape me. I lost my father a week ago. I think mostly what I want to get across is how hard dealing with death and dying is during a pandemic.
For the last three weeks of his life, we could not see him I understand that from my background in infection control and epidemiology, but at the same time, it was awful not to be able to visit him and support him, just as it was and still is hard not to be in the presence of other family members for mutual support.
For the majority of the time, it was due to bans of visitors both at his assisted living facility but also at the hospital. However, we changed his situation to comfort care and hospice when there had been no improvement. When he was moved to a hospice facility for the final two days, technically we could have gone to see him. However, it simply was not safe for one of my family members to do so and I had been dealing with some upper respiratory symptoms and was worried about what I may be incubating and decided to stay home.
We are still trying to figure out how to have a funeral service. I know it’s going to be really strange with only immediate family present and maybe a few people streaming it from their homes.
I guess what I would like to say is that I know many families all over the world are experiencing similar issues.
It’s a very lonely time.
I see you.
I hear you.
I feel you.
