My grandma didn’t die from COVID, but she kind of did.
She was in her retirement home and my parents were visiting her basically five days a week for a good hour each time. My dad would tell me how much they were making sure that she was alert, making her work her memory and talk about everything.
Then the pandemic.
She spent months without seeing them. And then it was in a giant room with all the other retirees, many screaming in this highly reverberating space, masks on, no touch, 10 minutes at a time, once a week only.
She couldn’t understand. They tried to explain the situation to her but this flu like thing with those hardcore precautions didn’t make sense. She even asked what did she do to them for not coming to see her. That made her completely give up. She shut down.
My parents have been deeply affected by this experience.
It is what it is.