Today, I find myself thinking about my Grandpa Kevin. He should have been glued to the TV today, watching all the swim events and remembering his old college days when he competed for Ohio State. His event was backstroke.

Memories and grief are like this — you can go days, weeks even, without thinking or feeling much about the one you lost, but then something hits you out of nowhere. In this case, the Olympics. You might not think Covid and the Olympics go together, but then again why shouldn’t they?

I suspect that with the election forthcoming, there will be a lot more pandemic chatter than has been present in the past year, and a lot of blaming. This will make me think of Grandpa Kevin and how none of us could be there with him at the end. That aloneness of his death will haunt me forever.