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Hello out there! You have captured the yearning of lonely old age, which swamped so many during the pandemic. I saw it on social media, where people revealed their true quivering selves as never before; in a virtual presentation I gave, where the q&a vibrated with desperation; and in my own writing from that time, which I recently reread. In four years I had forgotten so much. It’s not simply that we don’t understand what happened and what the long-term consequences will be. I don’t think we want to remember.

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Thanks, Rona. I agree-- those months have become memory but have not really been processed or understood. Working on this piece brought it all back. I drafted it years ago and wrote it in the present tense. It was tricky to rework it as more of a memory, but still hold on to the feeling.

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I really enjoyed this post and found the story about Winston very moving. Thank you.

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Thank you for this, in return.

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Poignant and revelatory. Very nicely done, Victoria. Thank you for writing this.

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