The words that you read today on this post, which I hope you take the time to read through, come from within. The words you read come from a mother who has buried a child and miscarried another within one year. The mother who writes today has found out her son, Hayes, has a mild case of COVID-19.
We are grateful for the prayers and messages everyone sends us. We are grateful he carries a mild case, and hope it will not become more serious. We are saddened that we could not, for just one moment in our humanity, experience a joyful celebration of my wonderful father’s 75th birthday with friends and family. But, we know and understand the health and well-being of others comes first.
I wrote a very serious post on Corrie’s blog yesterday, and a tiny part of my nightmare came to life after I wrote it. I’d said it’d be the last time I’d write about masks and vaccines, but as a mother who feared for the health and safety of her baby girl on May 27, 2020; and as a mother who sees her son’s face red everywhere, I must write again.
I will not be silent to please falsehoods, or to appear tolerant of the fantasies of a dictator in the making and those who support him. I have witnessed a truth unrelated to politics, and I have people I love very much on both sides of different ideologies.
But COVID-19 is not an ideology. It is not an “idea” right, left, or center. It is not for us to say “I don’t want to do this,” as if we’re children not getting our way. My child’s life is not for anyone to gamble away.
This is not CNN or Fox News. This is real, and if you still choose to be unvaccinated, I don’t know what will move you. Hayes woke up today with a 101.6 fever. His face and body was red everywhere as if he’d been sunburned. The redness extended beyond his cheeks to his forehead. My son had stopped chattering, as he normally does, yesterday.
Then Hayes started throwing up, and my nightmares from May 27, 2020 appeared in the daylight. The nightmares buckled around me like chains. They came holding my shoulders and arms as I witnessed my son experience the same symptom of a fever with what appeared to be a stomach virus. I saw Corrie on the bed, and her face without its light. She’d played soccer less than 24 hours before.
I came back to the moment, and got Hayes to urgent care. They could not tell me whether or not he had the Delta variant yet. I wanted just one more year for my son to get the vaccine. Just one more.
Thankfully, I have my son. I know I’m being very open and honest about my feelings. When you have lost, your other living child or children become everything to you.
If you still believe “the government” lies and gives false statistics, Hayes was diagnosed with COVID-19 today.
If you believe someone is out to get you or you want things your way, Hayes lies in a bed without saying one word about dinosaurs or outer space.
If you still consult inept ideas that turn into ash the moment they touch fire, then let’s just hope you never walk in my shoes.
I pray to God you never have to wear mine.
Corrie's Season 