From TPM Reader DH …
At 5:30am on Christmas morning the cardiologist called my cell phone to tell me that my 87 year old father had died, that the heart attack was just too massive for medical science to be able to save him. This was an unexpected turn of events. Despite living in New York city, the first US COVID hot spot, my parents had managed to avoid infection. They were very careful- masks, lots of deliveries and minimal contact with anyone, even me and my wife and kids who live in the same neighborhood. Rather than our usual holiday tradition where my brother and his adult kids fly in from out of state, they planned for a virtual celebration with everyone on zoom – be they four blocks or four thousand miles away. My father had gone to bed on Christmas Eve with the expectation of getting up in the morning to see his family on the computer and working on a new art project in his studio.