I am Canadian but my wife is Texan so we split out time between two countries; winter in Texas is more forgiving than Canada and summer in Canada likewise.
So when I got word of my father's sudden and unexpected death of a ruptured aneurysm in his abdominal aorta in Canada on January 1st 2021, I was two time zones away, just before midnight on December 31st 2020 in Texas.
When I prepared to fly back to Canada, the airlines cautioned me that some provinces (including mine) were barring incoming passengers. I called and I was denied entry. My elderly mother has three sisters still alive; they were denied entry as well.
The memory of watching the video feed of Dad's funeral with everyone uselessly "social distancing" wearing masks still makes me angry and sorrowful. And it appears no-one will ever be held accountable for turning the world upside-down over a bad flu.
I was so angry that so many were isolated from even their families before they died alone. Very evil thing that was done to the world. God will not forget and those responsible will answer for it.
One thing I remember my mom saying, that no parent would say today was this: "I don't care where you go, but don't come home until 5PM."
The freedom we had as free-range kids is hard to even imagine today.
The slide I liked most at a city park a block from my home and visited regularly on my own at age 5 would never be allowed today. Easily 10 feet in the air with minimal guard rails.
At age 12, to get a Boy Scout merit badge, I went on a 50 mile bicycle ride all over our county. No one knew where I was. No one was with me, and I had no way to summon help if needed.
1973. Driving my yellow VW beetle, stick shift, no seat belts, regularly down-shifting to slow down and up-shifting (is that a word?) to accellerate, and nursing my brand new baby all at the same time.
Very sorry about the loss of your grandparents. I lost a my drum teacher of 20 years. A friend/teacher/mentor. Shaun. Even though I saw nearly every week, we did not travel in the same circles. I only found out about nearly six months after the fact when I changed phones and for whatever reason. a total stranger on FB messenger had reached out to me on my old phone, but the message had not come through. He asked me if I knew what had happened. The irony is, a couple of weeks earlier, I had stopped by his studio to see if he was around and I remember a terrible emptiness. He also had a Zoom funeral. 😢😡 I haven't played since.
This happened around the time I found out my cat had cancer and we had to put him down. I remember taking him to the vet when he got diagnosed and passing him out the window in his carrier and him meowing loudly. I swore that I would not do that again and when the time came, I found someone to come to my house. Gladly paid the money.
My family did not suffer a physical loss, but it destroyed our family business. I had a lot of anger over the whole CV mess. It is not as bad, but this brings it back up. I suspect this is intentional. We shall see.
I grew up in the late 60’s and 70’s. I had so much freedom living in a mid sized town in Ohio. I rode my bike everywhere sometimes all day. No cell phone, no helmet and sometimes no shoes. I lived at the public swimming pool in the summers. Just be home by dark was the rule.
I am also an only child. I spent lots of time playing with my Hot Wheels and Barbies using my imagination and getting dirty. I drank from the garden hose. I also got whipped when needed and trust me, I deserved every lick I received!
I am doing well today and hold no grudges against my folks. Loved hanging with my grandparents but sure didn’t ask enough questions of them. They all helped shape me into a responsible, compassionate adult with a good understanding of right n wrong.
So sad about the loss of 3 grandparents to Remdesivir. Fauci even mentioned in his diary that Hydroxychloroquine was effective and had doubts about Remdesivir. But he had close connections to the manufacturer and pushed "Rundeathisnear." This has been and interesting week of revelations.
I was the youngest of three kids, and what most would consider my dad's prodigal son. He pushed me harder than my siblings. Probably too hard at times, but that will never be known. By age 15, I had had enough of his abuse, so I deliberately misbehaved, knowing that I'd be facing severe consequences when I returned home. When he threatened, I stood up to him for the first time. I was unconscious about two seconds later. When I woke up, my jaw was severely damaged and a huge bump was growing out of the back of my head where it hit the concrete. I was in my dad's arms and he was sobbing. He'd never cried before. I think he thought he killed me. When he set me down on my bed to get ice for my head, I jumped out my bedroom window and ran into the night. I would never see him again due to a bullet he placed in his head shortly afterwards. In his suicide letter, he prayed that God would have mercy on my weak soul. This happened in the 1970's before certain mental illnesses were ever in vogue. For reasons unclear, he never once uttered, "I love you" to me. Dads didn't routinely do that back then, but it was generally understood that dads loved their sons. My hope is that God's plan is for us to meet again because no matter what his actions resulted in, he's still my primary hero, and those actions molded me into a better father and grandfather than his earthly body was ever capable of. Most young people today probably don't understand the concept of corporal punishment, much less the value in healthy bullying. My dad abused those responsibilities. Today I'm afraid that the pendulum has shifted farther in the other direction than my dad ever did in the opposite direction. The notion of "gentle parenting" is, in my opinion, just as abusive and far more dangerous than my dad ever was. "Spare the child the rod..."
Growing up in a small city in the foothills of NC in the 70’s was idyllic and unappreciated at the time by me. The long days of riding bikes, hiking endlessly through the woods abutting our neighborhood. Pickup ball games in a field across from our house were always raucously fun. Houses and cars left unlocked.Sledding down the steep street at night with lights rigged onto trash can carts of the neighbors. Sundays spent at church & grandmama’s eating home cooked meals. Learning to waterski & tube on an undeveloped lake and miles of tree lined coves with only an occasional fisherman to wave at. You really don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone.
I have been spared the haunting of the loss of a loved one to COVID, and I cannot imagine how it would feel to have been prevented from being at the bedside of a dying parent. For both parent and child, that is simply an unimaginable and thoughtless cruelty.
You asked for something from my past that a child today would find hard to imagine, and I immediately thought of something that many of us who were suburban kids 60 years ago could describe: a truly free-range and un-monitored childhood, with dense woods and roads with no bike lanes connecting me with dozens of other kids. A high-trust culture, house and car doors left unlocked. All families on my cue-de-sac socially connected because almost every family featured kids the age of me or of my 5 siblings. I look back with gratitude, but I also mourn the loss of that moment-in-time landscape, and I wish that my current students could have grown up within it.
My mother was taken to the hospital beginning of 2022. They said she had Covid and I was not allowed to visit. I tried to sneak in but the city police were at all the entrances. One cop told me they were told not to let anyone in. She died there two weeks later and they still wouldn’t let me in and said they could only release her body to a funeral home. When the Catholic Church closed the churches because of Covid and switched to online only, I became open to a different version of Jesus and God, and it has brought me peace and contentment in my life, and my possibilities and boundaries have expanded.
I am Canadian but my wife is Texan so we split out time between two countries; winter in Texas is more forgiving than Canada and summer in Canada likewise.
So when I got word of my father's sudden and unexpected death of a ruptured aneurysm in his abdominal aorta in Canada on January 1st 2021, I was two time zones away, just before midnight on December 31st 2020 in Texas.
When I prepared to fly back to Canada, the airlines cautioned me that some provinces (including mine) were barring incoming passengers. I called and I was denied entry. My elderly mother has three sisters still alive; they were denied entry as well.
The memory of watching the video feed of Dad's funeral with everyone uselessly "social distancing" wearing masks still makes me angry and sorrowful. And it appears no-one will ever be held accountable for turning the world upside-down over a bad flu.
Very sorry for your loss.
I was so angry that so many were isolated from even their families before they died alone. Very evil thing that was done to the world. God will not forget and those responsible will answer for it.
The good news, Fauci buried himself a few days ago.
The guy that told the world all the lies, couldn't defend his actions. He's toast... many have been waiting for this self incrimination....
One thing I remember my mom saying, that no parent would say today was this: "I don't care where you go, but don't come home until 5PM."
The freedom we had as free-range kids is hard to even imagine today.
The slide I liked most at a city park a block from my home and visited regularly on my own at age 5 would never be allowed today. Easily 10 feet in the air with minimal guard rails.
At age 12, to get a Boy Scout merit badge, I went on a 50 mile bicycle ride all over our county. No one knew where I was. No one was with me, and I had no way to summon help if needed.
1973. Driving my yellow VW beetle, stick shift, no seat belts, regularly down-shifting to slow down and up-shifting (is that a word?) to accellerate, and nursing my brand new baby all at the same time.
Very sorry about the loss of your grandparents. I lost a my drum teacher of 20 years. A friend/teacher/mentor. Shaun. Even though I saw nearly every week, we did not travel in the same circles. I only found out about nearly six months after the fact when I changed phones and for whatever reason. a total stranger on FB messenger had reached out to me on my old phone, but the message had not come through. He asked me if I knew what had happened. The irony is, a couple of weeks earlier, I had stopped by his studio to see if he was around and I remember a terrible emptiness. He also had a Zoom funeral. 😢😡 I haven't played since.
This happened around the time I found out my cat had cancer and we had to put him down. I remember taking him to the vet when he got diagnosed and passing him out the window in his carrier and him meowing loudly. I swore that I would not do that again and when the time came, I found someone to come to my house. Gladly paid the money.
My family did not suffer a physical loss, but it destroyed our family business. I had a lot of anger over the whole CV mess. It is not as bad, but this brings it back up. I suspect this is intentional. We shall see.
Margaret “Peggy” Ryan. May she enjoy eternal life.
I grew up in the late 60’s and 70’s. I had so much freedom living in a mid sized town in Ohio. I rode my bike everywhere sometimes all day. No cell phone, no helmet and sometimes no shoes. I lived at the public swimming pool in the summers. Just be home by dark was the rule.
I am also an only child. I spent lots of time playing with my Hot Wheels and Barbies using my imagination and getting dirty. I drank from the garden hose. I also got whipped when needed and trust me, I deserved every lick I received!
I am doing well today and hold no grudges against my folks. Loved hanging with my grandparents but sure didn’t ask enough questions of them. They all helped shape me into a responsible, compassionate adult with a good understanding of right n wrong.
I really enjoyed this story EKO. Thanks❤️
So sad about the loss of 3 grandparents to Remdesivir. Fauci even mentioned in his diary that Hydroxychloroquine was effective and had doubts about Remdesivir. But he had close connections to the manufacturer and pushed "Rundeathisnear." This has been and interesting week of revelations.
One thing I experienced - an excellent public education in a small town in NC.
I was the youngest of three kids, and what most would consider my dad's prodigal son. He pushed me harder than my siblings. Probably too hard at times, but that will never be known. By age 15, I had had enough of his abuse, so I deliberately misbehaved, knowing that I'd be facing severe consequences when I returned home. When he threatened, I stood up to him for the first time. I was unconscious about two seconds later. When I woke up, my jaw was severely damaged and a huge bump was growing out of the back of my head where it hit the concrete. I was in my dad's arms and he was sobbing. He'd never cried before. I think he thought he killed me. When he set me down on my bed to get ice for my head, I jumped out my bedroom window and ran into the night. I would never see him again due to a bullet he placed in his head shortly afterwards. In his suicide letter, he prayed that God would have mercy on my weak soul. This happened in the 1970's before certain mental illnesses were ever in vogue. For reasons unclear, he never once uttered, "I love you" to me. Dads didn't routinely do that back then, but it was generally understood that dads loved their sons. My hope is that God's plan is for us to meet again because no matter what his actions resulted in, he's still my primary hero, and those actions molded me into a better father and grandfather than his earthly body was ever capable of. Most young people today probably don't understand the concept of corporal punishment, much less the value in healthy bullying. My dad abused those responsibilities. Today I'm afraid that the pendulum has shifted farther in the other direction than my dad ever did in the opposite direction. The notion of "gentle parenting" is, in my opinion, just as abusive and far more dangerous than my dad ever was. "Spare the child the rod..."
Growing up in a small city in the foothills of NC in the 70’s was idyllic and unappreciated at the time by me. The long days of riding bikes, hiking endlessly through the woods abutting our neighborhood. Pickup ball games in a field across from our house were always raucously fun. Houses and cars left unlocked.Sledding down the steep street at night with lights rigged onto trash can carts of the neighbors. Sundays spent at church & grandmama’s eating home cooked meals. Learning to waterski & tube on an undeveloped lake and miles of tree lined coves with only an occasional fisherman to wave at. You really don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone.
So very sorry for your loss EKO. I’ll join the class action. My mom was exterminated during the scam
I have been spared the haunting of the loss of a loved one to COVID, and I cannot imagine how it would feel to have been prevented from being at the bedside of a dying parent. For both parent and child, that is simply an unimaginable and thoughtless cruelty.
You asked for something from my past that a child today would find hard to imagine, and I immediately thought of something that many of us who were suburban kids 60 years ago could describe: a truly free-range and un-monitored childhood, with dense woods and roads with no bike lanes connecting me with dozens of other kids. A high-trust culture, house and car doors left unlocked. All families on my cue-de-sac socially connected because almost every family featured kids the age of me or of my 5 siblings. I look back with gratitude, but I also mourn the loss of that moment-in-time landscape, and I wish that my current students could have grown up within it.
My mother was taken to the hospital beginning of 2022. They said she had Covid and I was not allowed to visit. I tried to sneak in but the city police were at all the entrances. One cop told me they were told not to let anyone in. She died there two weeks later and they still wouldn’t let me in and said they could only release her body to a funeral home. When the Catholic Church closed the churches because of Covid and switched to online only, I became open to a different version of Jesus and God, and it has brought me peace and contentment in my life, and my possibilities and boundaries have expanded.
Trust.