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Death by Costco
Tales from the pandemic and beyond
Author’s Note (3–12–21): This is the first essay I wrote for Medium, and the most comprehensive about my reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. The story has a happy ending. I’m writing this addendum from my daughter’s house in Hawaii. Yes, I’m fully vaccinated and visiting once again. We’ve been apart for a year. My “Mama Sense” toward those I love is stronger than ever.
In mid-February, Carmen went to Naples. For clarification, she traveled to Florida, not Italy. On the flight to the Gulf Coast, she and her friend, Michelle, scrubbed all of the airplane surfaces near them with sanitary wipes. And their hands, with sanitizer, obsessively. Same thing on their trip home 10 days later.
When Moker and I heard of Carmen’s preoccupation with germs, we chuckled. Maybe even let out a discreet guffaw or two. We’re more than familiar with the flu — it struck our family with a vengeance in the winter of 2017–18, felling me for at least 10 days, and knocking Ella Numera Una and her Hubby out for the count twice shortly after that. We chalked those germs up to being careless. None of us had bothered with flu shots that year. I vowed never to make that mistake again and moved on with my life.
I’ll admit it — I’ve always been leary of folks who exhibit germaphobic tendencies. I taught with a gal who…
