Fran Sale Stafford

Last Virus Post

There are still no reported cases in our part of the state, but at least 20 people in this region are in isolation in the hospitals awaiting test results. After sequestering for a week, we made one last grocery run and hope that we have accumulated enough food and ingredients to last 8 weeks at home without having to go out again.

We both got emotional as we headed back to our rural farm with the idea that we will be socially isolated for an unknown period of time. The hardest part of this for me is not seeing my children or my grandchildren for an unknown period. I want to come out on the other side of this healthy so I can get all the hugs and snuggles then.

We have a treadmill and hand weights, a long hilly rural dead end road, and 30 acres to wander and get our exercise.

It will soon be full on garden season, so I can spend mornings and evenings planting, weeding, eventually harvesting and canning. The area is beginning to show signs of spring.

There are crafts to do, books to read, seed to plant, fields to wander.

Maybe I will try some natural dying with lichen collected from the many rock piles or the hulls of the hickory nuts gathered before the hay field gets too tall to walk. Yesterday that was my exercise of choice and I came home with two tiny deer ticks. I need to be sure to spray my pants legs and tuck them in my socks before I wander off the road. I certainly don’t need Lyme disease. I was treated for it once before after we bought this farm but before the house was built.

A bit sad

We were supposed to take a weekend trip this weekend, across the state to meet our newest grandson. Out of precaution for them and us, our hotel reservation was cancelled and they were called to tell them we love them, want pictures of all of their children, and we would reschedule when it is safe to do so.

This is the second event we have had to cancel reservations on and postpone, the first an event with our other 3 grandchildren.

As we stay at home avoiding other people, cancelling opportunities to see our children and grandchildren, people with nationally known names are posting “that this is a ploy to disrupt capitalism,” “if you are healthy, go to your local pub,” “it’s just the flu,” and other statements and tweets to try to diminish the severity of the situation.

My extended family has many folks with underlying health conditions, compromised immune systems. My sibs, cousins, hubby, hubby’s sister, and I are over 60, several over 70. We are the folks that the CDC is most worried about.

We can hope for a vaccine, but if like the flu vaccine, they aren’t fully effective for several weeks after it is given. We can hope for coming to spring will cause it to die out. But what we can do, is stay apart, whether you are healthy or not so that you don’t spread it unknowingly. Stay apart if you have any illness symptoms whether they are COVID-19 or not. Check on each other by phone, text, or other media.

We are on a track that mirrors Italy and that is frightening. Be safe, practice safe habits. I want hugs from everyone when it is over. In the meantime, I love you children, grandchildren, sibs, cousins, BE SAFE.

I hope this nation learns from this the importance of vaccines for communicable illness where there is a vaccine; the importance of self distancing when you are ill with a cold, flu, chicken pox, measles, or whatever; the realization that it isn’t about you.

It Means You, Too!

Will live a few miles from West Virginia in SW Virginia in regions that have no REPORTED cases of COVID-19. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t cases. It means that they haven’t been tested or they are walking around with no symptoms, or “just a cold,” and possibly spreading it throughout the community that will suddenly show a handful of cases, then double that, then double it again in a few short days.

The schools in Virginia have all been closed for at least 2 weeks to try to flatten the spike, try to slow this health disaster before there are so many ill the hospitals have to make decisions on who to treat and who might die like they have done in Italy.

Yesterday, my social media feeds were full of “What time do you want us over?” “We will meet you at…” Pictures of local music venues where you were eating, drinking, and jamming. That is not social distancing. Maybe the person next to you is an UNREPORTED case. That doesn’t mean they don’t have it and aren’t spreading it, it means they have not been tested. You might get sick, you might heal, you might spread it to a child in fragile health who won’t survive it, or a senior citizen in the grocer who had no choice but to shop for sustenance, one whose immune system isn’t as strong and may not survive.

If we can’t self police, the next step will be total isolation like Spain, France, and Italy. They have had it for a couple of weeks longer and it spread.

I would love to have weekend time with my grand children and children. Love to have hugs. Love to go to my social places, but I can’t risk it, I am one of those senior citizens and I know that my immunity isn’t as strong as it was, my hubby’s either.

It isn’t about you. Think of others. If you miss a few weeks or months of being in groups, you will get over it. If you give this devastating virus to a sick child or immune suppressed adult, they may not get over it.

If you have to go to work, wash your hands often. Don’t hug or shake hands. Stand at least 3 feet apart. If you are trying to support a local venue, buy a gift certificate so they have cash now and use it when and if this passes us by.