Grandpa's Tale

Grandpa’s Tale

“I hope that never happens again, Grandpa.”

“Yeah, so do a lot of people, including me.”

“I read that it could have wiped all humans off of the face of the Earth!”

“That’s what we were all afraid of, but modern science and faith together worked to prevent that from happening, son.”

“How old were you, Grandpa?”

“Well, let’s see. That was over fifteen years ago, and I was 69 years old. I had just had surgery on my leg and was at a care center for rehabilitation. The entire center was locked down for a long time. Your mom and dad couldn’t visit me. I couldn’t even go outside of my room, and everyone had to wear face masks.”

“Why?”

“They didn’t want it to spread. They worked hard to find out what it was and its origin, so they could develop the correct vaccination to help our bodies develop strong antibodies to fight it off.”

“So, nobody could go outside until they did that?”

“Not unless it was necessary. Everything closed.”

“I don’t think I would have liked that either, Grandpa. I couldn’t see my friends or go to school or even to the playground. That would defiantly suck!”

“That’s what happened. Parents had to learn to help their children go to school through the computer.”

“Yeah, but that’s not so bad. That’s what we all can do now.”

“But it was a new thing back then. Some families had a lot of kids who were school age and they all needed to turn their homes into school classes. Since businesses closed, many parents had to stay home anyway so they were there for the kids.”

“You mean all the stores closed and nobody went to work anymore?”

“Only the important places stayed open. Those who could work from home did so. Otherwise, there were various programs to help.”

“Grandpa, if that was over fifteen years ago, why do I see some people still wearing masks.”

“Well, even though some people refused to wear masks back then, a lot of people did for a lot of reasons. Some were already weak and ill and some just believed that the masks helped to slow down the spread and prevent it from growing. I guess some people today still prefer to wear them in public for protection and that’s fine, it’s their choice.”

“Is that why people in Japan and China always wear them?”

“I think people in some Asian countries always wore them mainly because of the bad pollution, but I guess they continue to for the same reasons we do in this country.”

“Mr. Paulson, my science teacher, got mad because Joyce said that it came over here form Chinese people. He told us that it still isn’t clear how it came here, and it was by… uh...the zoo or something like that.”

“Zoonotic or zoonosis. It’s when a disease is transmitted from animals to humans. The reason your teacher got angry was because back then a lot of people said it came from Chinese people and they were bullied and assaulted because of that. The virus upset so much of our lives that people were mad and had to blame someone.”

“Did it make you angry, too. Grandpa?’

“Yes, it did. It made me fearful more than anything. I felt helpless.

Although I was lonely and isolated, I spent time writing more music. I kept in touch with the rest of humanity by watching television and I could find some inkling of hope.”

“Hope? How? It sounds like it was an apocalypse to me.”

“Ha! It seemed like that to me back then also. But there were aspects where humanity came together to help one another survive. There were brave people on the front lines who kept life going and they were recognized and appreciated back then like no other time in their careers. Scientists and those who specialized in contagious viruses didn’t sit by – they worked to help each nation by nation."

“You mean doctors and nurses?”

“Absolutely! Doctors, nurses, grocery workers, fire fighters, EMT’S and all those who stood committed in the face of their own fears and vulnerabilities.”

“I can imagine it was like a ghost town in some places, huh, Grandpa?”

“Yes. It was though someone pushed a pause button over the entire world. The streets were bare, highways empty and a collective silence. I read where some people could hear birds singing that they never could hear before and because people were no longer moving about, some critters not seen in over 100 years reappeared.”

“What? Which ones, Grandpa?”

“A rare wolverine, for instance. There were other examples of how mother earth took advantage of human absence to the betterment of itself.”

“You mean there was something good that came out of it all? Like what?”

“Well, when it came to nature, the air pollution levels dropped dramatically in highly populated regions like India and Asia. The water in the canal in Venice became clearer than ever before. They say the Himalayans mountains could be seem from parts of India for the first time in the modern era. When it came to humans, it forced some families to gather and interact, which is a wonderful thing. Some re-evaluated our ways of living and our overall consumption.”

“Oh snap, Grandpa. I saw something on TikTok about whales and how they grew in numbers since then.”

“I understand that the whale population has grown for the first time, and they think it’s because hunting and fishing was down, and they have more food in their supply chain. How great is that?”

“Grandpa, when did it end? What happened? Did it just go away one day?”

“Well, son you know there are some who believe it never was a thing at all; that it was just a very bad flu that would go away the was most viruses eventually do given some time. But it was the magnitude of lives it took that caused alarm and separated this one from an ordinary flu. It didn’t just go away. It fought hard to survive. It realized it couldn’t infect people who were protected by strong antibodies, whether injected or natural – so it attacked the ones unvaccinated.”

“Grandpa, you talk about it as if it was a living person.”

“It was a living organism that wanted badly to thrive. It realized that if its hosts died it could not grow, so it stopped killing people and morphed into a weaker variant that made people just very sick. At the same time, it was able to penetrate masks and better ones were required. By the time it figured how to evade vaccines, it had become a weaker strain and with most people having immunity, kt slowly weakened even further.”

“So, it just died out the way the naysayers aid it would?”

“I wouldn’t say it died out on kits own. I give credit to the persistent and unstoppable work of humanity and nature.”

“So do you think it will come back, Grandpa?”

“Perhaps, son, but hopefully not in our lifetime.”

The End?