Sadly enough, the most painful goodbyes are the ones that are left unsaid and never explained.
Jonathan Harnisch
Hey, Lovelies.
Last week I had a zoom call with a friend, Irene, who is helping me with some analytics and marketing. As we talked, she raised the idea of me finding a web dev (web developer) person. It was a good idea, and after our call I realised that I had already used someone before who would be great.
Sophie is a Spanish national, who has been living in Bali as a digital nomad for the last five years. I’ve hired her as a freelancer for a number of projects, and so I reached out to her via email.
She didn’t answer, so I sent a second message to both her Whatsapp account and Facebook.
A day later I received a response from her partner. Sophie passed away last week from COVID. She was a fit and healthy young woman, 32, no co-morbidities. A non-drinking, non-smoking vegetarian yoga instructor. She died two weeks after becoming ill.
I have tried to write this post a dozen times.
I was so shocked to learn of her death.
I feel so sad at the loss of her life.
Sophie is not the only person I know who has died of COVID. Many of our international clients have had loved ones die, or have passed away themselves. Many who survived COVID have never really recovered their health. I know of people who died although they were young, fit and healthy. I know of older people with so much life ahead of them who died. And I know of children and babies who have died from COVID.
Although we have so far been spared the kind of health crisis that other countries have seen, Australia is at risk and could easily succumb to a sudden spread of COVID in our community.
I struggle with the number of people in the spiritual and new age community who angrily tell me daily that COVID is a ‘ScamDemic’, no worse than the flu, or a total beat-up by the media and corrupt governments, or a plan from the new world order to usurp our rights and inject us with nanotechnology or tracking devices or mind control chemicals.
Meanwhile, I have friends on the medical and emergency services frontlines who have put their own wellbeing at risk for months now, and who have sacrificed much and given much in performing their jobs to keep us safe and ensure that we are cared for, here and abroad. Some of them have been abused or spat on simply for wearing their scrubs in public, or their masks. I have healthcare worker friends who have died from COVID, and some who have taken their own lives after dealing with the trauma of a hospital system overwhelmed and for having worked in what amounted to a war zone for months, with little support and no end in sight.
So, if you think that COVID is a scam, if you don’t want to abide by public health policies, if you insist on sending me conspiracy theory videos and articles, do us both a favour and unsubscribe. Unfriend me. Unfollow me. Thanks.
For everyone else, take advantage of opportunities to tell your loved ones how much you love them, check in on friends and family, especially people in lockdowns, or who have been doing it tough. COVID active in your community? Socially distance. Wash your hands. Wear a mask. Abide by public health directives. Get vaccinated if safe to do so. Take care of yourself and each other,
Much love, Nicole xx
