Remember in the beginning of Covid how everyone was behind the health care professionals who were on the front lines? For months, many in neighborhoods all over the United States would open up their doors and windows and howl like wolves to show their support. Even if one didn’t participate, that mass of support could be felt and was tangible.

While that didn’t last forever, they still get support. I know my friends have provided treats for them on a regular basis while I have been here and I believe that is true for others as well.

I can tell you while I have been in ICU – Ted’s been here since 10/19 and I’ve been here every day since 11/08 – that the one thing that everyone is wishful for, is for Covid to all be seen in a different way. They would all love for that mass of support to be lifted again, but in a different way. It is so very hard on them to have to deal with the severe complications that can now mostly be avoided with the vaccine.

So, If you really want to give a gift. A real gift. One that might just cost you more than any money in your pocketbook or account. It may actually cost you in giving in to something you have held fast against.

Don’t get me wrong, no one is advocating that you change any of your stances. You can still rail against the system, you don’t have to change your political views, you can bitch and moan how you shouldn’t have to do it all the way to the pharmacy, but if you really really want to thank the front line workers in this pandemic, you will quit listening to anyone on a news program or podcast and listen to the 99% majority in any ICU ward in any hospital. They are tired of this. They are scared for their loved ones who are not vaccinated. The very last thing that they can endure is that one of you that they know and care about end up in front of them.

If you have a healthcare worker in your life, and you love them and have not been vaccinated, then I can guarantee you that you will not be able to give a better gift than the peace of mind that they will not ever have to suction out your lungs while you are on the ventilator. I see the pain in their eyes as they look in mine and I can see how they pray hard that they don’t have to personally have their father/mother/sister/brother/cousin/husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend/neighbor/friend/or even their enemy, go through the ravages of covid. Yes, you can play the numbers game. That’s what Ted did and we are losing. In fact, through all of this, the United States have lost enough people to fill every seat in all of the NFL games being played this weekend.

If you still say that you cannot in all conscious get vaccinated, then I request that in all of the arguments running through your mind, please check to see if you are basing your decision on fear, hate, distrust of something external or can you instead make this one decision and gift to them based upon your love of them and your faith in what they themselves have seen and not what you have heard. It will be a gift of doing something for someone you love just because you know it will mean everything to them. And believe me, it will.

And if you don’t have a loved one on the front lines, the staff would still would love your gift. It is such a happy occasion in this hospital when a covid patient finally gets to leave the ICU, that they blare across the speakers the song “I get by with a little help from my friends”. Unfortunately, in the time I have been here, it has only played twice. So, if you have been on the fence, get your jabs and send the nearest ICU team a card and and thank them for their service and say that in appreciation of everything they do, that you got vaxed. I guarantee it will be a card that gets hung on their board for the rest of the year.

Lets rethink what a true gift is this year.

Love Sally