Just learned my 63 year-old kind, gentle, much beloved uncle was still working at his Pepsi job through the pandemic bc his wife lost her job. He’s been there for over 30 years and didn’t want to lose his benefits.
He died of COVID-19 yesterday. 8 months shy of retirement.
He died of COVID-19 yesterday. 8 months shy of retirement.
This country’s abyssmal, unimaginable failure to control this virus has devastated millions and millions of Americans. Our country is being run by people who expect the worst, do the worst, and make us the worst of what we can be.
I am so angry. This is just one more horrific story in a horrific landscape but it matters. We cannot continue to let those at the top devour those of us at the bottom. We deserve better than this.
I’m not saying any of this for pity. The folks who deserve sympathy right now are his wife of 40 years and their only son & grandchildren. I’m saying this because it is impossible that we work every day for this to be our plight. We cannot pass this terrible place on to our kids.
My little brother just told me one of the things I want you to know about my uncle — when he was told to come back to work in the midst of a pandemic, he demanded PPE and other protections for him and his fellow workers that he supervised. He was a hero.
My family will probably think I’m nuts saying all of this on Twitter (they’re on here, too). But he was beautiful and he mattered and I want someone to care. Uncle Joey deserves to be remembered.
Please don’t follow me on Twitter because my uncle died. Just send up a prayer for the family and say his name for us.
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