Good Riddance 2020

Sorry, I haven’t written in sooooo long. For me, 2020 was a nightmare. Full of change, loss, and my heart was ripped to shreds.

2020 started off amazing. I was finishing up my helper season for UPS. Loved it, as always, because I can eat all the Christmas cookies I want and not gain a pound. This year was even better. I had just moved to historical Charleston, SC. I made really good money, got an amazing workout (up and down stairs constantly, as everything is built up along the Cooper River), and it was a mini vacation. I was getting to see the area for the first time.

I also had a new job at an amazing gym, right over the Ravenel Bridge, which I’d run almost daily. Or the battery, along the ocean downtown. My clientele was picking up as we shared clients. Each trainer doesn’t have their own. Great idea, because it gives the clients better workouts. It switches things up. Your not doing the same exercises over and over. Trainers tend to get stuck in ruts.

This was my second job in the area. The first gym I worked at was great, but the owner’s son got cancer just as I was being trained and I only picked up one client.

I was finally able to make ends meet. My birthday was coming up, so I was menu surfing, as I do, especially, after being a starving bikini girl. Then, Covid hit, restaurants closed, and my last day of work was my birthday. Some birthday present 🙁

I was miserable, stuck in my apartment, glued to the news, and fearful of everyone. It was scary to go out to walk my dog or get groceries. I would walk or run on the sidewalk next to Hwy. 17 for at-least 5 miles and do workouts on my patio staring at the pool that was closed. 🙁 Just to get outside.

Then, a little over a month passed and I got a call from my dad asking me to come home. My grandmother wasn’t doing well and he wanted to get her out of the nursing home and asked me to be her full-time caregiver. I agreed and in a couple days had all my stuff packed or in storage and me and Dioge headed back to Ohio.

I drove straight thru, overnight. That morning, I met my dad at her home and we were picking out where we’d place her bed, so she could see all her flowers and wildlife, when he got the call. They didn’t know how much longer she might have and we could finally go see her. For months, no one could see her because of Covid.

We drove right over. At first my temperature was too high to go in (I think it was from all the stress). It went down after a few minutes of sitting and we went in. It was horrible. I mean, it was great to see her and hug her, but it wasn’t her. Her strength had vanished. She was skin and bones. She could hardly talk, but she knew we were there, and that’s all that matters. That would be the last time I’d see her. She passed that night.

Then, I talked to my best friend. She was a mess. Her husband was dying of Cancer. I went and stayed with her for a week, took care of her dogs, and house, so she could tend to him. I went to pick up her brother at the airport, came back, and hospice was there. As soon as we walked in, he passed. I honestly think the dying know when it’s ok to go. He knew his wife would be ok, her brother was there. I continued to stay with her for another week or two.

He was a fighter and lived 5 years longer than the doctors predicted. The last few years of his battle with Cancer he lived his bucket list. He was an amazing man. I later told her, if I ever do settle, it will have to be for a man with his character.

Then, the worst, my Dioge, my everything, my little boy, best friend, my dog dyed. It was horrible. Still months later I expect to see him somewhere or think I need to get back to take care of him. I miss him something terrible. I’m still heartbroken and lucky to get through the day without tearing up. At-least I’m back with my family in this trying time. So, good riddance 2020. You brought nothing but death and sadness.