I’ve been wanting to write this for some time. It has been a hard year for my family and I. On January 19th 2021 I received a phone call from the nurse at the hospital that our mum had passed away. Little did I know how hard the following months would be. We like many people were in that emotional limbo where we were denied the time to sit, hold the hand and respect our lost loved one. Covid stole that most valued time where we could say our goodbyes and share our love with the people we treasured the most.

We like untold millions other around the globe were faced with the loss of someone in the coldest and most clinical way. Dealing with the many emotions and thoughts this loss caused. The Sadness, the questions, the guilt that you didn’t tell them everything they meant to you. All of it was caused by a bureaucracy most clinical and rules that meant we were ill-equipped for the burden that was delivered to us its victim’s families and loved ones.

The other thing that happened was the growth of the cult of ignorance in which we were faced with increasing numbers of people who refused to believe that Covid was real and a threat. Those who were convinced that numbers and statistics were more important than the human cost. These same people became cultists who told you that masks didn’t work, that the vaccine was a scam or a conspiracy, they believed that they knew the “truth” and that this was some big plot by the powers that be to control us and curtail our freedoms. These same people would shout about how wearing a mask was an assault on their freedom and rail about how this was just the start of a secret agenda. The sad thing is the Anti-Vax Brigade who have fed the ignorance and who are responsible for the deaths of untold numbers of people who believe that the vaccines don’t work.

I began to have conversations where people would try to convince me that they had done their research, having been initiated into some secret knowledge somehow which showed the “truth” of the situation. Throwing statistics, and loose “facts” and hearsay and dubious “science” around like it was evidence of the sham that was Covid. I knew that these people had taken on the cult of ignorance as their uniform – blissfully oblivious of their insensitivity, ignorance and stupidity.

Their raiment was one of ignorance, entitlement, selfishness and childish petulance and the insistence on not wearing a mask because it somehow violated their freedom to do so, that was an affront to their belief in the lies being fed to them by the quasi-intellectuals who were their sources of the “great truths” that they now were champions of.

I was being asked questions like, did your mum have underlying conditions, told that it only affected a small percentage of the population and in my grief, I was unable to feel anything but anger, sorrow and grief at their insensitivity, their lack of compassion and the complete failure of their common sense and respect for their fellow human beings. Beings who are mourning the loss of their loved ones and who would welcome some compassion, consideration and love instead of the statistics and the smug “I know what this is” shit that people are throwing at us.

Our mother, Angelou was a beautiful gentle soul, who loved everyone and had time for everyone, family, friend and stranger alike. Angelou wasn’t just a statistic or someone with underlying health issues. She was a dearly loved soul, whom we, like many others out there in the same Covid aftermath are treasured, loved and missed dearly.

So to those of you who wish to talk to me and those of us in the same situation, hold your tongue, think before you start to spout parrot-fashion the crap you know so little about. If you are not an epidemiologist, virologist, respiratory specialist or someone with first-hand knowledge of the factors at play then hold your council and thoughts to yourself. I’m done with being considerate and respectful of the lack of care, compassion, consideration or humanity of those of you who insist on being surface thinkers.