On January 16, 1990, I had been 14 for almost a month and I wrote in my Calendiary:
“the war has started, they are calling it ‘Operation Desert Storm’ now.”
Each day that followed I wrote “the war is still on”, as though I was surprised it lasted more than a day.
At the very top of the page just above where it says January 1991, I had written “OPERATION DESERT SHIELD BECAME OPERATION DESERT STORM WHEN THE WAR STARTED”, just like that in all caps.
Besides this, I vaguely recall the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster in 1986, (I had to Google the year because it is vague in my mind).
In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell and I remember watching that on the news but it seemed a world away.
The SARS outbreak in the early 2000’s I only remember because I was asked to work some overtime giving out the vaccine for it. I was working on Psychiatry at the time and one of the people I had to give the vaccine to was the Psychiatrist’s wife and I remember thinking ‘oh god, please let me give the most painless needle ever’.
My oldest child Bella-Lena was just over two months old when 9/11 occurred and she and I were visiting my parents near Swan River. Of course I recall those moments plainly that morning, thinking at first what I was seeing on TV was a preview for new movie.
I’m so sick of Covid and talking about Covid to be honest. It was a brutal time to be a nurse and a challenging time to be a parent to teenagers.
All in all, it’s a drop in the bucket when you think about people who lived through World War one, the Depression and then another bloody World War. Those are the tough people.
bloom.planted.north 
Leave a comment