This is an old post, but found it and wanted to share two things that happened to me. Sorry, this is long. I had a friend and neighbor for 30 years, but I had moved 20 miles away. We kept in touch, but I hadn't heard from him for awhile, or contacted him, so called one day, and his phone had been disconnected. He was in his 60's at the time and not the best health. I thought he had died, and no one had told me. So I went to see about him. I knocked on his door and he came to the door, and he looked terrible. Always was a slim build, but he looked like he had lost more weight, and he had a long beard...whereas he had used to always be clean shaven. To make a long story short, he was very depressed. I had been just about his only contact, being very much a loner. He hadn't picked up his mail or paid any bills...so phone was cut off. He wasn't even aware of it. He had no edible food in his house....a couple of moldy burritos in his fridge, and wine bottles stacked like cordwood in all the cabinets. I picked up his mail, got him to write checks to pay his bills, bought groceries for him....and wine and cigarettes, since that was what he mainly existed on, and by going to to the liquor store for him, it kept him from driving. I straightened up his house and did his laundry. I promised I would look after him until he died. He had been diagnosed with emphysema years prior, and his family doctor had chastised him for smoking. He had said he would quit...even bought some nicotine patches, but never used them. He didn't quit smoking and he never went back to the doctor. How long could he possibly last? A few weeks? A couple of months? He lived 8 years!! Every day I went to see him, and brought food for him...which he seldom ate, I didn't try to make him do anything, but every day I asked him if he wanted to go to the doctor or did he want me to contact his family. He always said no. I think he lived so long because I am very healthy, and I haven't been sick in years, and he never left his house the last four years of his life. I took care of everything for him...his yard, house, even getting someone to come in and cut his hair. Once in a blue moon, he would shave. I was there every day, sometimes twice a day, and a couple of times, 4 times. I slept on his floor a couple of times when I thought death was near. Remember...it was a 40 mile round trip to where I lived. I furnished him with books and magazines and movies to watch. Got him interested in talk radio to give him a little diversion. In other words, I did everything I could to make him happy. He was a very intelligent man and a voracious reader. We had many long talks over the years. We both knew he didn't have long to live. I asked him if he would contact me if he could, after he passed. He didn't believe in an afterlife and told me so. Still, every so often, I would ask him again. I think to shut me up, he finally agreed. Still, I would sometimes remind him. I was with him when he died. He went quickly when his time came. I went in the kitche to get him a Gatorade, which he had said he wanted, and came back...two short breaths and he was gone. After he died, I dreamed about him several times. In one dream he was taIking to me on the phone, and he asked me why I didn't come see him any more. I hated to tell him that he had died, and the niece he didn't like was living in his house. But, I did tell him, and he said, so incredulous...like he had never considered it. "Are you sure about that?" It was exactly like something he would say if we were having a conversation before he passed. For several weeks, I didn't dream about him any more, and then I had a dream and he told me he had something to tell me....but before I found out what it was, I woke up. I tried to go back to sleep, hoping to finish the dream, but I couldn't. I finally got up and when I walked around the foot of the bed, there was the letter K (his name was Ken). It was made out of dozens of little drops of water. I was home alone. My husband was away at work for two weeks. No water in the room. No pets. Completely alone. I can't even say I was shocked. I knew it was Ken. I knew he would contact me if he could. I started to not even take a picture of it. He was a very private person, and he wouldn't have liked that I took a picture and showed it to anyone, but I did, and sadly I lost it when I lost my phone. So you will have to take my word for it, and of course, you don't know me, but it is the truth. So here is the second one: My husband had a terminal illness. He had asbestosis and pulmonary fibrosis. We lived on a bayou, and flooded badly during Hurricane Harvey. Lost just about everything...8' of water in the yard and 4' in the house. He could no longer work, and since I have horses, he wanted me to have a place that made taking care of them easier. So we moved 175 miles away, to east Texas. He passed away about 18 months later. I asked him to contact me if he could. Unlike Ken, I didn't have to talk him into it. He said he would. (However, I did remind him a few times}. About two weeks after he died, my niece sent me a gift...it was a clip with his name on it, the year he was born, the year he died, and the words...."Your wings were ready, but my heart was not." I knew it was a clip of some kind but not what it was for. A couple of days later, someone told me it was a visor clip for your vehicle. Oh. So I was going to go out and put it in my truck. But I couldn't find it. It had been laying on the kitchen counter. I looked everywhere for it. Under the furniture....never found it. I felt terrible. I had moved away, and would probably not see my niece again, but if I did...I wouldn't have it. I felt terrible. I even considered ordering one just like it, in case I did see her again. Six weeks passed. Covid restrictions let up here....I was glad to be able to be out and about again. I went to the thrift shop that had just re-opened. I had indigestion. I knew I had a bottle of Tums in my truck. It has bucket seats, and I thought the bottle had fallen between the console and the seat. I got down and looked under the seat on the driver's side. Not there. I went around to the passenger side, looked under that seat...there they were. Took two and went in the shop. Came out about an hour later, opened the door on the driver's side, and there was the clip. First thing I saw when I opened the door. It wasn't there when I went in...I would have seen it, especially since I got down and looked under the seat. You may think I had taken it to the truck and forgotten about it, but if I had done that I would have put it on the visor, and I didn't even know what it was for until someone told me, and then I couldn't find it. So those are my signs. I had asked my husband for something specific. I live in the country. There are milions of butterflies and cardinals here. I wanted something to be sure. It has given me a lot of comfort. I still miss him terribly and sometimes the grief catches me by surprise and is so painful again, but this tells me, he is okay, and he is near.

I just heard Jacob Ward* on CNN say a few interesting things. 1. That with the case of the woman patient in Northern California, 36 nurses had to be quarantined! That’s a lot of staff missing from duty. 2. That the travel ban is misdirected. (Could you guess that xemophobe Stephen Miller wrote Trump’s speech? “Foreign” Disease.” The Covid-19 virus is here in the US and elsewhere already already. (not sure if rest is from Jake Ward or another good guest) 3. TESTING TESTING TESTING (and no backlogs, please)! Testing allows epidemiologists to learn where our own hotspots are. We need to be able to plan & allocate resources. A few days ago, some expert said that one thing large scale testing for the Covid-19 virus does, is allow pretty good zeroing in on who’s got the virus, where they are. They (epidemiological detectives) can interview patients and use various paper, mobile phones and electronic tracking to help them figure out common trail and sources. (Cue up Forensic File music.) 4. One of the expert guests suggested, depending on how “hot” your area seems to be or likely will be, to postpone elective surgery to free up hospital beds. I guess my surgery is elective ;-/ but I am in significant discomfort/pain. I think it is a go home that day, but light general anesthesia or just put me in a coma. Small joint surgery. Alisande, Isn’t that laparoscopic gb surgery pretty much go home the next day? See what your docs advise. 5. The US has tested only a few hundred and there is a backlog on getting the tests processed. South Korea has tested a few thousand individuals, and weeks ago. The US has handled this situation so very poorly. The virus has exploded in such a short while. Maybe someone has accolades for the CDC leadership (Reddington (spelling), a nodding bobble head. Top leadership has been abysmal. Don’t hold out for a vaccine, even in 18 months. This is a tremendously difficult thing to achieve with a coronavirus. We can attempt to slow the spread, to flatten the curve, but this disease is going to sweep over us. “Social distancing” is one way to help slow things down. It is too late to stomp it out (on this planet anyway). Gird you’re loins, folks. Seniors congregated close together in nursing homes is a perfect set up for lots of very ill and dying citizens. It’s not going to be nice. ”We’re fighting an enemy and we don’t even know where it is,” says Ron Klain, former Obama Ebola czar, speaking of the incredible lack of testing. He also said that when you look at the Johns Hopkins virus map and see no red dots or blobs in an area (day Maine or Gondwanaland), it cannot be interpreted as meaning no Covid-19 there. Rather, it indicates that there has been no testing there. (Returning my tix to Gondwanaland.) * Jacob Ward is excellent. Smart, calm, trained, experienced.

I don’t understand the tone of this thread. It’s not likely we can change each other’s minds, so perhaps we should agree to disagree. I understand some are very scared, and rightfully so, but the best we can do is to protect ourselves by taking the proper measures. If someone is comfortable wearing a mask and someone else isn’t, then stay away from each other (as in 6 ft away). Likewise, I don’t believe there is one answer that ‘fits all’ with regard to in person or virtual learning. What’s best for a small, rural district with low positivity and cases is likely not what’s best for a hot spot area. I do think the teachers unions have way too much power and control in my area. They had input into the district’s plan for school reopening. Once the plan was announced, they reneged on the agreement within days. Most of my husband’s family are active or retired teachers. When Covid eventually goes away or we have a vaccine and life returns to some semblance of normal, I’m sure they will complain about the lousy job parents did of teaching during the pandemic. They have already expressed concern that some parents are unenrolling their child(ren) from public school so they can homeschool on their own or enroll the child in a private school with in person learning. Their concern is the public schools will lose funding for every child that is unenrolled and the teachers could be facing layoffs. I’m thinking ‘welcome to the real world.’ Many of us (including teachers) thought it was just fine that the healthcare workers, grocery workers, food processing workers, etc. have worked throughout the pandemic. I’m tired of the teachers (at least my in-laws) denigrating other professions and parents and claiming how very special they are and no one has a worse life than they do. Good teachers are important as is education but I can do without the complaining.

arcy, I'm not sure why you think think it's okay for people with health problems and older people to die fro CoVid-19, as long as it isn't the general population. Those people are someone's spouse. parent.grandparent, child, or sibling, and I guarantee someone cares if that person dies. I lost my husband of nearly 49 years last month, and his having severe health problems didn't make it one bit easier. Also, people of all ages have died from this disease, so we have lost some of the general population, just not in a great amount. Elmer, I do hope people will choose wisely in November and not be blinded and deafened by political rhetoric.