We are well, I hope

Thank you, friends, for you concern for my girl. She woke up still with a headache this morning, but as the day wore on she felt better. "You need to relax, woman," she texted me after my umpteenth call. "People get headaches." She worked today regardless, and her team at the nonprofit has now raised $16-million for people in the city who are food insecure, a number that grows exponentially day by day, as more and more companies let people go. My son's fiancee has been laid off, and the two of them have put a pin in their wedding plans. "Maybe we'll go to City Hall one day and have a party after," he said. He wasn't entirely joking. Meanwhile, two of his friends whose weddings are this year have postponed their ceremonies. My son and his love got refunds on their plane tickets, then rebooked for the later dates at a third of the previous cost.

I actually got myself all the way dressed this afternoon, as I have two Zoom meetings back to back tonight, one at 6 pm, the other at 7:30 pm, neither of them with people who are my family or close friends, so they wouldn't understand the wild woman look my husband and niece have been treated to these past few days. The first meeting is with my wellness group, which our corona quarantine has shot to hell, and the other is the Tenant Selection Committee for my complex, for which I am a board member. I'm curious to see how we will interview prospective tenants over Zoom tonight, but I thought I should at least try to look a bit respectable doing it.

There is so much bad news everyday in this city right now, and life feels so incredibly fragile. But my son is okay. And more than a hundred firefighters and medics who came down with covid and were out sick have now recovered and came back to work this week, so that's heartening. My son continues to work shift after shift, night and day. It's hard to not see him, and my daughter too, and their loves, who we also now love, but this, too will pass.

I don't have much to say, I'm a little shut down to tell the truth. Just know, the horrific numbers of covid deaths coming out of my city are vastly under reported, as only those who die in the hospitals are being counted, and almost as many are dying at home, for an estimated total of 450 deaths in New York City daily. And as I told a friend in another state this morning, no regular person can get a test to learn his or her covid status. Only those in a scary enough condition to have to go to the hospital are being tested now. The rest of us just watch for symptoms.

As for the pictures, you know, I still see my grown children this way. I still want to wrap them up safely away from the world so nothing can harm them. Please hold a good thought for us, and I will for you, too.