I got Covid a few weeks ago after two years of trying to avoid it.

I am vaccinated and boosted. I was wearing a mask in public spaces.

I still got sick; more sick than I had been in a few years. And of course, I passed it along to my husband.

I ended up being fine. Probably because this variant is less deadly and because the data has proven that vaccinations keep people out of the ER and hospital.

For that, I am grateful.

But as I was recovering alone in our room, alone in our house, away from those I love and need, I thought of the hundreds of thousands of dear souls in this country who got sick, suffered and died ... alone.

It broke my heart.

I felt a wave of otherwordly loneliness wash over me - for all the families, all the husbands, wives, spouses, children, parents, friends, grandparents who died in forsaken isolation.

And for the medical professionals who had to navigate all that lonely sickness and death on top of their already near impossible circumstances.

I am so grieved for us all.

The whole world has been traumatized, and continues to be.

I commit to do all I can to not spread this disease to any other human being.

I pray each one of us will do our part.

Not just for ourselves, but our neighbors, the sick, the elderly, the already lonely.