Quinn Cummings: Eight words blew up my world.

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1440007775870799875.html

A small story:

I'm writing this knowing it won't do fuck-all but I occasionally allow myself a scream into the abyss.

"Papa had another heart attack. And he died," my mother told me when I was nine. I will never, ever forget those sentences. Eight words blew up my world.

How much did it affect me? For much of my life if I was mentioning a theoretical child in the context of something else, I would say "A nine year old girl/boy." My entire childhood was literally pinned to that moment.

Hell, my life was pinned to that moment.

(If you are currently thinking of virtually hugging me...don't. I am fine. Your sympathy or pity fills me with nausea)

It was only after @pattonoswalt talked in his show about having to tell his daughter the unimaginable news that her mother had suddenly died that I started to think of it from the side of the teller and not the listener.

My mother knew my father had died earlier that day.

She said nothing until we were someplace private. She then looked into my eyes and destroyed me, because she had no choice. Kid and Consort are a smart, profane tag-team; she knows how endless is his love for her. It's a big part of what makes Kid the force of nature she is.

Had I been forced to do that in her childhood, it would have been the worst thing I ever had to do. But at least whatever would have taken him would have been unavoidable. My father's heart attack was huge and sudden; he was gone before he could be helped.

Dear Person Who Is Not Vaccinated Right Now,

I don't give a shit about your reasons because someone with exactly your reasons is currently dying in ever ICU in the United States. You're wrong and your brainwashing will probably kill you.

Fine.

I don't care about you.

If you have a child, children, you have decided that destroying them is a reasonable trade-off for whatever dopamine hit you're getting off the next YouTube video spouting bullshit. I chose the metaphor carefully; you are a junkie and you have lost control of your life.
"Actuall-"

No.

Someone who saw the same videos you did just got intubated. Your stupidity has been weaponized and you've been acclimated to require a daily dosage of ignorance to feel okay.

You're not "Owning the libs."

You're telling us you're fine with irreparably harming the souls of the only people on earth you are tasked with protecting.

For nothing.

I hope whoever tells them you're dead has a quiet place to do it.
• • •

[Just_Vote_Dem]

1. This hate vs. hate is gonna kill us all

Putin must be so thrilled. They really are burying us from within.

[Maraya1969]

2. When my mom's significant other died in the hospital they called me. I suppose

because she was also in her eighties. But that was horrible. They called at about 2am and I just stayed up all night and then drove to her house with breakfast and told her after she ate. I felt terrible. And afterward I second guessed myself thinking I should have called one of her friends to be with her and on and on and on.

When I miscarried they found out after I went to the hospital for an internal ultrasound. The doctor called me that night and I swear I think he was crying.

We don't even think about that job that has to be done every time someone dies. It really is awful.

[niyad]

3. . . .