Greetings, friends of the Silver Blogger community, like every Monday, I respond to the invitation of
@ericvancewalton, this time in his Memoir Monday №49, he invites us to answer: What do you miss about the pre-pandemic world?

My country, Venezuela, has been strange for quite some time now, we have fallen out of our ways and we have remained like this, in that daily abnormality. The pandemic came to add a new element to that strangeness. Skepticism was added, from those who did not believe, along with the excess of norms, many of them exaggerated, in addition to the reactions of those who were terrified.

A friend of mine went to work in the morning and when he came back at noon, tired because there was no transportation and he had to walk back, he found that his sister wouldn't let him into the house. She wanted him to take off his shoes first so she could do some kind of disinfection with chlorine, which he refused, very upset.

Gif source: Peakd gif gallery

There were people who got much sicker from breathing in the chlorine-smelling environment. People who never got sick, even though they didn't take more care than they should have; Others, who took care of themselves and did not get infected, those who, despite taking care of themselves, got infected up to two times, and those who unfortunately died.

My Facebook became a constant display of obituaries. That's how I learned of the death of my ophthalmologist and that of friends and former coworkers. I was not able to attend their funerals, some did not receive any kind of wake.

I miss the days when death was not the protagonist of networks, or conversations. The parade of losses has been long, because many were left with after-effects, which also cost them their lives. Covid not only took people away but left relatives of these people plunged into uncertainty because they did not know if they could have done things differently.

Death, which for me, was previously hidden or not shown to me so frequently, began to become visible, to actively participate and to shake my reasoning making me feel vulnerable. Never before had I gotten sick with the fear of having the end near. I miss my old way of being with regard to viruses, without fear of anything.

Fear took over and became another participant in our lives. Getting used to losses is not something that is foreseen. The fear that another disease will spread worldwide is something that is now a probability. I refuse to read devastating news, however, someone always comes out with some rumor, which generates a kind of shudder. The pandemic took away the peace of mind we had, we never imagined that something like this could happen, now it is a latent possibility.

We also did not have the fear that human evil could manifest itself in such a real way. The media and the way technology is handled spread different rumors about the origin of the virus and showed the correct behavior of health personnel, who exposed themselves and suffered extreme fatigue at the very least, but we also saw examples of people doing business with human suffering. The two sides of the coin.

What happened to us as humanity was terrible and left traces about our vulnerability as a human species. Before, we were accompanied by a kind of innocence that was exposed with the magnitude of this pandemic and everything that was done around it.

Source of the Gif Peakd gif gallery

In my case, after receiving the first vaccine, for four nights in a row I had the symptoms, one each day. I got the others and the booster. In October 2020 I got covid, I lost the sensation of taste and the perception of smells, this was something new. The discomfort was very strong that I resisted by drinking teas from different plants, then the after-effects remained, until the following year again in the month of October, when it came back. I had the best treatment from my family.

Love heals. I was left with new after-effects for several months. Until I was finally well. I used to have a better perception of smells, and I think of flavors too, I miss that. Sometimes my partner says to me: "How come you don't perceive that aroma?" "You don't and you were good at recognizing smells?" Well, not anymore. I have to be careful because sometimes the food starts to burn and I don't perceive the smell, I think I also miss my old nose.

Thank you for your kind reading.

My written content is written by me exclusively, using my brain, writing strategies and experiences on the subject.