Monday, April 13, 2020

As if my son being here in this ICU ward was not enough, the news coming in from Capitol Hill is not looking good. MERS is spreading quickly out of the Middle East. It has mutated and it is now air bourne. Wes told me I would know when it was announced what his deployment duties would be. Our forces are being evacuated and our assets brought within the borders of our territories. It must be hellish for us to abandon a war that is nearly twenty years old now.

Greece, Italy, Israel, Syria, and better than twenty other nations are reporting heavy infections. I don't want to watch the news but I can't seem to turn it off. Our administration announced a shutdown of the US borders and I cannot blame them. The losses that have been sustained in Iraq, where the first patient was reported two months ago has been staggering. Ten thousand are dead, with more than forty thousand infections and the number growing exponentially daily.

I sit staring at my son and my mind wanders to the piece of land and the promise it holds. The remote location, the pile of logs that should be becoming a house, and the tears well into my eyes. I feel as if a horrible choice is being laid before me, where I must choose between the emergency now, or the possible life of my family later. All I can do is stare at the television, at the horror that is becoming of Europe, and know the choice is being made for me.