\xa0A little more than a year ago, John and Patricia Kennedy, of Chatham, Illinois found their lives overturned and upended with Covid.\xa0 In the late fall of 2020, John attended a family reunion that centered around a ritual that is familiar to a lot of rural Midwesterners: deer camp.\xa0 That deer camp had particular importance.\xa0 His brother Patrick was dying with cancer.\xa0 His father was elderly, and the family knew that this would be the last time all would be together. \xa0
John's wife Pat didn't want him to go.\xa0 The pandemic was already raging across the country with no vaccine in sight.\xa0 She had a feeling that something terrible was going to happen to John.\xa0
It did.\xa0
His father contracted Covid.\xa0 The family did not know he had it.\xa0 And yet, by the time the camp was over, John and several of the family had it.\xa0 For John, who was a bit skeptical about the virus, it was something that nearly took his life.\xa0 For Pat, it was dealing with the anger of being left behind, not only by the decision of John's, but by the possibility of his now dying from Covid.\xa0
Luckily, (and narrowly) John survived.\xa0 But the aftermath was the sorting out of feelings about Covid, about their relationship, about their friends and what their friends believed and the overarching question of why it had to be this way in the first place. \xa0
With a year's perspective behind them, Pat and John agreed to come back and be interviewed about how life has progressed.\xa0 We return to the deer camp.\xa0
We are always grateful to have you listening to STRUNG OUT. Here are some important links:
SUPPORT THE SHOW:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/MartyfineaK
MARTIN'S WEBSITE:
http://www.MARTINMcCORMACK.COM
(note---you can get my weekly bulletin when you sign up on the list!)
MARTIN'S MUSIC:
Music | Martin Laurence McCormack (bandcamp.com)
Martin McCormack | Spotify
MARTIN'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Martin McCormack - YouTube
FACEBOOK
Facebook
...