A stoicism has entered us all, even those who have not lost someone to the virus. The pandemic numbers sit heavy, like weights, in the daily news. On social media, the photographs of loved ones lost, the stories of their lives, are a recurring note, grown constant in these times.

Last week an older cousin of mine passed on. Getting her to an emergency room had been difficult under current Covid-19 rules, which makes one wonder about rules, about the chances of survival, about the inevitability of death.