Personal Impact of COVID

by Samantha Kisare

The inevitable, collective grief that will come from this pandemic weighs on me constantly. I’m bracing for it. How long before someone I care about is among those critically ill, intubated, and alone in the hospital? Will I lose anyone? Alone in my studio, I try to dull these thoughts with phone calls to my family, routine, and trashy TV. Nevertheless, attempts to maintain normalcy feel surreal when the country is shut down and people are gasping for breath, dying alone in hospitals.