Forty-Nine Years Ago Today

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My Mother had the decency
to space her birth month
and death month:

What had they
just been
doing
???

She was born in February
and died in October

One out of two ain't bad
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***
*** 

Forty-nine years and 
four days  ago
I called my Father
to belatedly wish him
HAPPY BIRTHDAY

He couldn't really talk
and sort of hung up on me.  
He was in pain from
the triple coronary bypass
he had had three years earlier

I had called between classes
at Stonybrook and dialed
the only phone number
we ever had: IN1-1553
plus area code, of course

Exactly, forty-nine years ago today,
it was March 16, 1971

I dialed the same number
only to be told
by an automated voice
that it had been changed to
767-9793

When my sister answered the phone
after re-dialing, I assumed 
a game-show host voice

Congratulations on 
your new phone number:
YOU have just won a new car

All Linda said was

"Daddy died an hour ago"

My mother died before
the end of that year

Three years later,
Linda joined their ranks.

Therefore, it is impossible
in 2020 for me to regard Death,
as in the Corona Virus Pandemic,
the same way most people do

I apologize to anyone
who thinks my attitude
about the Virus
is too frivolous
or too dismissive

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