Day 99

I was young, somewhere in elementary school, when Daddy decided he really wanted a cross to wear around his neck. Because I was little, I couldn’t stay home alone, and so my parents dragged me to jewelry stores with them for Dad to find the just the right cross and gold chain. His excitement was infectious. He was so giddy when he selected the cross and found the right chain. He wore that cross every day, except when he was at the beach. Always, he took it off before going into the water, so that it wouldn’t get lost or ruined by the salt. 

Today, we left Mattituck. My spouse is having eye surgery tomorrow and I needed to get back to Jersey so that I could drive her in the morning. My son and I stopped in Queens so that I could take my mom to the bank and grocery shopping. While we were there, Mom asked me if there was any of Dad’s jewelry that I wanted. I told her I’d really like it if she could hold onto Dad’s cross for my son. He’s too young to wear it now. I wouldn’t want him to lose it. But when he get’s older, he might like to wear it, not so much for its religious significance but because it once meant so much to Dad. 

As I was looking at Dad’s things, I came across a ring with a G on it. I asked Mom if my brother wanted it, and she said no. So I asked her to hold onto that for my son as well. Someday, when his fingers grow a little fatter, he might like it. He’s always been proud of the fact that he has Dad’s name.

I wanted Dad’s ruby ring. I don’t remember the story behind it. I think the ruby came from a ring that belonged to my grandmother. I’ll have to get the story from Mom when her mind clears a little. I do know that Dad did have the ruby reset into a man’s ring. Of course, it’s too big for me to wear on the finger it was meant for, but it fits my thumb. I took his replacement wedding ring as well, which also sort of fits my thumb. Mom said that his finger got thicker as he got older and his original ring didn’t fit him any more, so he got a second ring that he could wear. The ring that no longer fit him, now fits mom, and that’s the ring she’s been wearing. I don’t think she’ll ever take it off.

My son enjoyed the stop over in Queens since we arrived just before my brother left. That meant he got to spend a little more time hanging out with the dogs. 

On the journey back to Bedminster, I hit lots of traffic. I think people have forgotten how to drive with others on the road. During the pandemic, people became so accustomed to empty roads they started to drive too fast. Now that the world is opening up, and more people are going out, they have to share the highway, and the result is quite a few car accidents. 

New York City entered phase two of opening up today, which means kids can visit playgrounds, restaurants can open for outdoor dining, and people can finally get their hair cut. I’m not thrilled about the playgrounds being open. I’ve been to city playgrounds, they get mobbed — a petri dish of germs as kids touch everything and play super close to each other. I understand that kids are restless, but city playgrounds, I fear, can still be dangerous. Meanwhile, Covid is on the rise in many states, especially red states down south. It angers me. They saw what happened in New York. The horror stories were on the news, and instead of listening, instead of heeding the warning, the governors decided that business was more important than life. The states opened up, people listened to the science-denying president who called it hoax, and now the hospitals are filling up. The cemeteries won’t be far behind. How stupid can people be? Unlike New York, which got blindsided due to the traffic coming through the airports, these other states had the knowledge and information to avoid mass death, and they ignored it. People keep talking about a second wave. You can’t have a second wave if the first one never ends. Can you?