* Cover image:
Banksy, "game changer" or "painting for saints"
- Southhampton Hospital, May, 2020*
At the beginning of 2020, Covid pandemic struck.
At first, we all thought it was going to be just Wuhan... just China.
Yeah... kind of.
After a few weeks, my city was hit. Bad.
In around a month, our whole hospital was mainly dealing with Covid pneumonia cases.
A lot of people were enrolled to work in Covid units: also Theo.
I wasn't, because my department was deemed essential, so it was not closed, and I kept working there.
Most other departments in our hospital, were closed.
And Theo had no idea how a ventilation machine worked; luckily, he had been a nerd, but his last meet with C-PAPs and Bi-PAPs was in a textbook, over 5 years ago.
I gave him a quick refresh.
But working in Covid wards was a nightmare for him.
He came home every night, with marks on his face from his FFP2 facemask. Sweaty from the plastic gowns they were wearing all day.
At one point, the situation was so desperate that they were working 12 hours shifts, non-stop.
I always worked 12 hours or even longer shifts: but not wearing a painful mask and a plastic gown, sweating like a pig, unable to breathe, drink, eat, or use the toilet.
Theo was exhausted.
Every night he told me that he saw people dying, in his shift.
He would cry, then.
...
I remember one day, some colleagues and I were called, to help rearrange an abandoned, old building in our hospital area. It looked like the set from a horror movie.
We all helped;
There were cleaners working round the clock, to try and get the place usable.
We rushed in oxygen tanks and cables, to get electricity to the place.
Beds were stuck up, and patients were soon rushed in.
There were so many of them, we didn't know where to put them.
....
So Covid 19 had changed our lives... at least, for a few months.
It definitely put our personal agenda on hold.
Theo was particularly struck by it: he was starting to be depressed- something I had never seen him being before.
He was always calm, positive, even when things bothered him.
Even deep, personal things: I had never seen him so affected.
One day, he came home. We discussed how relatives weren't even let in sometimes, to say goodbye to their loved ones.
We touched a difficult theme, also.
We were not married: so, for the state laws, we were almost perfect strangers.
We started to look into the matter, like, are unmarried partners allowed to -let's say- make a decision for you, if you are incapacitated in a hospital bed?
And things like that.
I suggested we should just get married, with no ceremony, since it was not allowed in that period.
Eventually, we decided that there was no specific urgency for it, and settled over waiting until the situation improved.
Then, we would begin planning for our wedding again.
...
But the worry had stuck, in my mind.
I had nightmares at night, that we were going to die. Of Covid, maybe.
We had some serious cases, also among the youngest.
I imagined that we were gonna die, without ever being able to call each other husband and wife.
I told Theo about my nightmares.
...
One day, he dragged me to sit down on the carpet with him.
- Theo, what are you doing??
He grabbed my hands.
- Shut up now, Bi. You are mine, forever, and ever, whatever happens. Ok?
I nodded.
I didn't understand where he was going with it.
- I do. I'm yours, Theo. Your property, and yours only...
And I smiled mischievously- I thought it was some sort of sexy roleplay, or something.
I was a lot into that kind of things. But no, he was being serious.
- Ok, so...
He picked up his phone, cleared his voice, and read.
- I, Theo, take you, Bi, to be my wife.
And what-wait, what's going on??
Has he gone out of his mind??
YOU ARE READING
Let's hope for the best
Non-Fiction... but prepare for the worst. When I was a kid, I thought that life was going to be like a Disney movie. Then, alas, life happened. And I found out, I was not ready for it.
