Feeling helpless in the first world [View all]

[DFW]

Despite battling heart issues (me) and battling (and beating) cancer twice (my wife), we still consider ourselves fairly fortunate on the misery scale. So far, we have had enough friends and resources to get us through all the crap that has come our way, and we've had it pretty good compared to many others.

But now, we got word that our son-in-law over in the USA caught Covid-19 on a business trip to Atlanta, and it is not mild. He is double vaxxed, took what precautions he could, but that doesn't mean everyone did with whom he came in contact. When he got back to New York City, where our daughter and their infant son live, he soon started feeling the symptoms. Not only that, but their son was just getting over a really bad viral respiratory infection (not Covid)--so bad that he needed round-the-clock attention and couldn't be in a prone position for days. Our daughter continues to test negative, despite the proximity. Her husband has barricaded himself in a room to quarantine, and my poor daughter is going nuts trying to do her job remotely from their apartment, while caring for her two men 24/7. We pondered going over to America to help, but we wouldn't be allowed any contact anyway, and nor could we fly back to Germany after being in contact with a known Covid case. My sister-in-law lives nearby in New Jersey, but she can't get any closer than we can.

We can't really do anything. There is no one to hire, no one we can call, no place they could go, and no treatment that would make things better. Hurry up and wait. Hearing about a daughter's misery from afar is definitely not our favorite spectator sport. We hate it.