Not Done With Us

When your kid calls you and says she needs you, you don't ask why. You just go.

Our kid has struggled a bit through her first year at university, living on her own and trying to make new friends. And I get it: Toronto is a huge city and she's in a highly competitive program. Add on the pandemic and the constant protests that happen around her neighbourhood, and yeah, it's stressful.

But she was also under the weather, with what seemed to either be a nasty head cold or spring allergies, and she was unable to sleep properly through the week. As a result, she missed a bunch of classes and she was feeling defeated.

Hence, the call to Mom and Dad on Friday.

I got some pressing work items out of the way and jumped in our car, making some very good time on the highways (only one quick pee break) and pulling up to her residence building before 2:30. I called her several times, unsuccessfully, in the hour and a half before I arrived, hoping that she would eat something from her residence cafeteria before we headed back for Ottawa. I only got through about five minutes before I arrived, and learned that she had just woken up, that she was feeling really rough.

"Just throw your essentials in a bag, grab your laptop and Lily (her cat), and come out."

I'm grateful that I had recently replenished the tissues in the car. Our sick kid was going through them like they were going out of style. "I've taken like three rapid COVID tests this week and they were all negative," she said, "but I'm so sick."

We made one stop on the way home: the ON Route rest-service stop in Port Hope. We entered, masked, and were disappointed to see so many maskless patrons. Thankfully, we were able to steer clear of them and the staff at the food outlets were masked and behind plexiglass. We grabbed our food and jumped back in the car.

At home, our kid made herself some homemade mac and cheese, chased it with some Nyquil, and called it a day.

On Saturday, DW and I awoke early and headed to our local Costco to get in our bi-weekly shopping before the masses arrived. We were surprised to see more people than usual for a Saturday morning, and we were also disappointed at how many people were not wearing masks. As many as 25 percent of the people I saw, including staff, were uncovered.

I was particularly stressed when I saw one person, unmasked, who was coughing and not even covering her mouth. Whenever I saw her coming toward me, down and aisle, I turned around and avoided her.

Groceries collected, DW and I returned straight home. The kid was just getting up and we offered to make her breakfast.

Photo: 3D4 Medical

When she came down, she was wearing an N95 face mask. "I just did another rapid test," she said, "it's positive."

I had spent five hours with her, in a confined space, while she coughed and blew her nose. In retrospect, I should have donned a mask, simply to avoid catching any possible head cold she had. Indeed, just the week before, my nose was running and my sinuses were congested, though I chalked that up to the mold in the air from our rapid spring warmup and thaw.

It happens to me every year at this time and I simply take allergy meds to help combat it. But neither of us wore our masks in the car.

It looked like our kid was going to spend more than a weekend at home. I don't blame her for catching the virus. She's diligent about wearing her mask and keeping a distance. Even taking precautions doesn't guarantee immunity.

I haven't taken a test to see if I also have COVID. I'm going to wait another day or so. I initially thought I would take the test if I showed no symptoms, just to see if I had it. If I showed symptoms, I'd just assume I had it. In the meantime, I already assumed I had it and just stayed at home.

Betcha' those unmasked folks at Costco are glad I wore one. And I guess I won't be seeing my folks this week.

On Sunday afternoon, my sinuses started acting up and I developed sniffles and a cough. No worse than I felt the other week, so fingers are crossed that this is as bad as it gets. By the evening, a sore throat developed as well.

This experience has taught me a valuable lesson: we are not over this pandemic. The virus is not done with us.

If people continue to not wear masks—the simplest way to slow or stop the spread—it's only going to get worse, especially because the BA2 variant seems to be replacing Omicron. Dropping the mask mandate has been the worst idea our governments have had during this pandemic. And utterly irresponsible.

Do the folks around you a favour. Wear a mask.