Dear Editor,
The Impact COVID-19 has had on me and my family began when we started following this strange virus back in late 2019. At that time there was not very much news on it. We read everything we could and followed it.
We were told to stock up on supplies. There was this young man standing in the cleaning isle with a makeshift mask on crying. He said, “I have diabetes, I am going to die.” We wanted to hug and console him and knew we could not for our own safety.
Masks were hard to get. My niece owns a shop in Forsyth, Montana; she found masks online. I ordered 100 of them; it cost me over $100. The lack of PPE we experienced in the United States was so difficult for me to comprehend. I am a health care worker. I depend on PPE to save my life.
As COVID-19 was rapidly spreading throughout the world. My fear and concerns over my residents and co-workers contracting COVID-19 never left my mind. Everyone that tested positive at work did not die from this horrendous virus.
I was the only one that left the house for months. I was so scared constantly. Every day I came home from work, stripped in the porch threw my clothes in the washer, showered, and then disinfected things. This went on for months.
By now we had been living this nightmare for over a year. The vaccine was out there, but you had to wait your turn.
Then it happened on February 8, 2021, we received a text from our only living brother that he tested positive for COVID-19; his wife was negative. We dropped off supplies at his door. He is 64 and his wife Polly was 62.
February 9 Polly had all of the COVID-19 symptoms. They spent their last Valentine’s Day together sick with COVID. He had a card for her but was too sick to even sign it.
February 17 my brother makes the call to the hospital, “We have COVID-19. My wife needs help what do we do?” Polly was admitted to the hospital that morning; two days later she was in ICU. On February 24 she was placed on a ventilator, the next day on an ECMO machine. COVID had done its damage and ravaged her lungs beyond repair.
COVID-19 killed Polly on March 18. They were so close to getting the vaccine; it would have saved Polly’s life. Her turn for the vaccine never came up. Our brother has to move forward with his life being a widower because of COVID-19.
COVID-19 turned my life upside down, it is real, and it has been the most terrifying time in my entire life. Life will never be the same again. I cannot stress the importance of getting vaccinated as soon as you can. You never want to go through the horrific death that we went through with Polly. COVID-19 is serious, deadly, and never going anywhere. It is a virus.
Brenda and Vicki Dickinson
Billings, MT
