Death & Dying in the Time of Covid - Now, There is Just the Two of Us

It's always about the people and those of us who remain - to pick up the pieces and keep moving forward. Our new community, comprised of mainly US and other western immigrants, supported us with a vigil in town on the Sunday after Burt died. As well, Tina Marshall, who had served as a Death Doula to us and was instrumental in Burt getting the support he needed where the hospital and doctors were concerned, brought us out to her "Neverland" hideaway for the day on Saturday. In order for me to mourn, and you two kids to feel. Early the following week, Mema (Devi Kirn) flew out to southern Ecuador to be with us. I remember it feeling hard to let go of Sarah and glad that Mema was there so that transition was much easier. I also recall feeling very nervous about experiencing our first night, sleeping in the casita - alone, just the two us. Devi Kirn made her way back to Quito to fly back to the US and so we went out for a pizza dinner with Deborah, Sebas and the boys. Months later when we passed through Tombstone, Arizona on our second Mama Caravan tour, I remember thinking that it was like those posters of the movie 'Tombstone' that hang on the wall of the south-western US themed restaurant were seemingly winking at us that night. "Trust the process, Cara," I now imagine those actors faces were screaming from the posters on the wall. And on that first night alone, as the last four plus years have mainly been now, a honeybee showed up on our screen door of the front door and spent all night there. We weren't alone after all. Burt still found a way to bee there. Joy accompanied us on a trip to the capital, Guayaquil, so that we could get an official letter of your dad's death made. And then Letty flew out to help us begin our journey back to the USA as I had felt nervous about flying alone while navigating you and all of our things. Letty ended up having the backs of her legs and butt bitten up by the mosquitos down at the river so she was really uncomfortable for most of her ten day stay with us. As I had the year before, when we were packing up and preparing for our south of the border worldschooling adventure, I hurt my left knee. It's been a long struggle of mine to lean in and ask for help and support. It's amazing to have friends and loved ones who don't need us to ask but who jump in to assist. We are so loved. We arrived back to the USA just as Covid was hitting these western shores. We didn't have a home or a car but we have community. We stayed with Fiona and Steve in University City and we managed to put on a full weekend of in person events before the iron curtain fell. The following Tuesday after your dad's official memorial, the state of California mandanted a quarantine for sheltering at home. Covid had arrived.