Another goodbye to another good friend

[baldoldog]

I just learned this morning that Mrs. Gein #3 died “unexpectedly at home” Thursday. One of the many quasi step-choildren said it may have been congestive heart failure. Only 52 years old. A beautiful and deeply troubled woman. Another lifetime ago.

Comments

[greeneyedsadie]

Wow, I'm sorry. It could have been the virus, it has been causing cardiac arrest in people with mild symptoms. Big hugs.

[baldoldog]

Thank you very much, Aem. It is possible although from what her daughter and Mrs. Gein #2, her BFF, have told me, she’s been in ill health for a long time, had no insurance and no doctor. Like Westerhouse, this looked very preventable. Also like Westerhouse, she died alone in the house on her couch in front of the television. Just left the building without even knowing she was gone. Not a good day- I called Westerhouse’s widow to let her know ... she was part of the scene when we were recording the album and life was insane. Her father is dying of COVID-19 in a hospice.

[acelightning]

My condolences, of course. May most of your memories be pleasant ones.

Nobody I know personally has died of COVID19, but an old friend of mine on Vancouver Island has the disease - shortness of breath, fever, malaise. She has a number of prior conditions that could make it worse, but her cats have been piling on and comforting her and keeping her feet warm. She's a tough old bird, and I expect her to wind up donating plasma ASAP.

[acelightning]

No, it's someone who belonged to the same coven I did a while ago. I didn't know Morty lived on Vancouver Island. But my old friend is fine.

But another old friend from the same coven was living in a nursing home in NYC, because he was totally incapacitated by MS. Last week I heard on the news about how nursing homes were culture dishes for COVID, and I tried to get in touch with my friend, but he had gotten rid of his phone. I mentioned this to a mutual friend, who tracked down a way to reach our friend in the home. But he was found "unresponsive" in his room on Friday. No clue whether he got COVID19 or whether the MS killed him.

There are four people who are in the at-risk group whom the word needs so badly that we need to seal them up in hazmat suits so they can't get the virus. Willie Nelson, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Dolly Parton, and the Dalai Lama.

[acelightning]

The fellow in the nursing home just stopped taking any of the MS medications that were keeping him alive, and he let the disease kill him. Apparently it was the only way for him to get out of that grim, oppressive, warehouse-for-useless-old-crocks (halfway decent nursing homes charge way more than Medicare is willing to pay for, and he didn't have any other insurance). I miss the crazy sonofabitch already.

[baldoldog]

It was a particularly insane and out of control period for me, an area of my brain I just stopped visiting ... so maybe I am getting smarter? Possibly a touch of emotional maturity settling in. I had to call Mrs. Gein #2 to get information. In the past that would have been a fraught process, but since she has come to terms with her borderline personality disorder, this conversation also was straightforward. Maybe there has been something to sitting for ten years.

I know at least six people who’ve contracted the virus. Dennis is the only one I know who will have been fatally struck. Another one is a doctor. I assume I will know more as this thing unfolds as two of the quasi-stepchildren are nurses and I still have friends in healthcare. I hope your friend in Vancouver has people checking in on her.