Staunton Star - Times - Published in the Interest of the Staunton Community for Over 143 Years

By: Jill Pertler

For the last 14 months I’ve been anticipating it. Waiting. Knowing it was lurking in the corners or behind a large, formidable rock. I figured I was immersed in grief and that would lower my defenses and I’d be overcome eventually by some sort of bug – COVID or otherwise.

It finally got me. For the last week I’ve been officially sick.

Not sick as in cool (like “That’s so sick!”) Not cool at all, not in any sense. Hot was more like it, but not hot as in cool hot. Hot as in feverish. My face throbbed. My eyeballs ached. My breath felt like an overheated radiator...