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Now Is the Time to Attend to the Relationships That Matter
Yes, we need to wash our hands. We also need to love out loud.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, it was easy to feel disconnected from the experience of serious illness, especially as a young or otherwise well person.
As a palliative care physician, my experience is quite the opposite. Every day I care for patients whose reality is life-limiting illness, and this spring I found myself at the bedside of patients dying of coronavirus. With Covid-19 cases in the U.S. surpassing the five million mark, this pandemic has upended our once protective narrative of separation. It has brought death into our homes and forced us all to acknowledge it directly.
Though my work as a physician prepares me more than most, it was not until my own sister’s life lay in transient shadows that I realized how impossible it is to be prepared for the unexpected loss of someone we love. Looking back, it was then that I started to learn that living with emotional intentionality may just be our only way to try.
Last year, my sister Morgan, at only 35 years old, suffered a near fatal heart attack caused by a spontaneous coronary artery dissection. One minute, my family waited for her at a chic bar in Detroit to celebrate our mom’s birthday — and the next I…
