Lockdown 38/47 – Here Comes the Sun

Day 38 of my diary of a LOTR Fan Museum owner during our national lockdown (extended from 28 to 47 days: 33 at level 4, 14 at L3) – in NZ we’re uniting as a country to beat Covid-19 to break the chain and save lives, but …

In the new job, STAY HOME, be kind, I realised with a shock this morning how removed we are here in NZ from the horror of Covid-19. I had been planning a different blog post but I got caught out when listening to a gut-wrenching interview on Radio NZ with a young NZ Dr working in NYC.

The interview will be on line - do listen. After describing all the horror, the interview ended with the song NYC hospitals play on their loudspeakers when somebody recovers from Covid - Here comes the Sun. The song was then played, and with those opening bars I just started weeping.

I think it was everything – release of emotion for the enormity of what’s happening here and worldwide; the immediate horror of the events in NYC and other Covid hubs; and the trauma to medics (and I remembered the recent suicide of a young medic in NYC).

The last of these triggered a sleeping giant for me. True I have close family and friends in the system now (and I worry about them), but 26 years ago I lost my children’s father, a young doctor, to medical suicide.

Wounds like that never fully heal.

I often think of that young man (then 35). Working with life and death tears some people apart.

This morning’s interview made me feel so deeply for the medics dealing with Covid. May you come through this safely, without survivor guilt, and go on to happy fulfilling lives. Bless you David, and bless you all. Kathy xx