Do you know anyone who's died of it?

[Danger Man]

I've had a pretty horrible couple of months.  Various things I don't want to go into

Did you shit yourself?

[Shit Good Nose]

Numerous times, but that's not what I don't want to talk about.

[wooders1978]

A friend of mine has died after exhibiting symptoms but getting over it about 3 weeks ago - she was found by her husband dead at home - they are blaming a sudden asthma attack but she wasn't feeling well for ages but didn't want to bother the nhs

She was a wonderful, warm woman, who was planning her retirement after a recent redundancy, which she had wanted for some years now - a fortnight later and she is dead, life is so very unfair

[Egyptian Feast]

That's really sad, so sorry to hear that wooders1978.

Great to have you back Shit Good Nose, hope you're feeling a lot better now.

[Quote]

Awful news wooders1978. Deepest sympathies to you and the family.

(and to everyone else here who's lost someone)

[Sheffield Wednesday]

My mate's grandparents both dead within a week, two weeks after leaving the house for the first time in ten weeks. They really shouldn't have gone out, it's as simple as that, but 'they thought it was safe now'. It's very strange how many families this will leave without a generation. OK, they're not as 'significant' as losing young adults in a war, but it's going to have an impact. I just don't know what it is will be. We treat old people like dogshit anyway. I don't know. I'm tired.

[Shit Good Nose]

I've just been told that two people I used to work with have died from it in the last couple weeks.  They both retired over ten years ago, but I worked with them for nearly ten years and I got to know them well.

One I must admit I'm surprised to learn was still alive - he was in his 60s and about 28 stone when I worked with him, and he'd always had asthma and recurring gout.  The other one apparently had no underlying health issues, although he would have been just into his 70s now.

Bit of an odd feeling when someone you were very friendly with has died, except you haven't seen or spoken to them for years.

[Sheffield Wednesday]

Edit I'd probably regret that one

Anyway, you can probably say that anyone who knows someone who has died from this will be more cautious than someone who's lost their job or some money. I guess that's the kindest way to say it.

[Doomy Dwyer]

My uncle Bob died of it a couple of weeks ago. I suppose you could say that Bob isn't my uncle. We weren't close but he was a good guy. Although he looked remarkably like Stan Laurel, he always reminded me of the beat icon Neal Cassady, albeit a Neal Cassady who drove a Robin Reliant, wore a stringy yellow and brown tank-top and smoked Old Holborn rather than 'lids' of 'tea'. He was one of those people whose reaction time was virtually supernatural, knew a lot of stuff about a lot of stuff and he could carry on several conversations at once and not miss a beat. Which, actually, is not that impressive when considered in the context of my family whose conversation tends to centre upon whether you'd like a nice cup of tea and did you see that cunt johnson on the fucking telly last night. If you're good at swearing and nodding, you'll be fine.

I remember him giving me, my mum and my dad a lift to the airport once when I was a kid. Him and my aunt lived in Stevenage, which is a strange word and a strange place. But it's close to an airport (Luton? I dunno) and we'd stayed with them the night before on account of it being one of those flights that happens early in the AM. He drove like the wind, simultaneously rolling an oily rag with one hand, steering blindly with the other and conducting a high tempo conversation over his shoulder and paying no heed to the road or the screaming of rubber and my mother. He never once seemed to look in the direction that he was travelling but just knew, like Cassady, that the road would rise to meet him, leaving him free to dig his hand rolling tobacco, his endless talk and his eyeball kicks, man. My mum, a nervous passenger in the best of circumstances, damn near shat herself and would never travel in a car with him again. But I, a mere child, was in awe, even though I was old enough even by then to know that the Reliant and the tank-top were strictly verboten in any aesthetically meaningful sense.

He was also one of those blokes who was naturally gifted with numbers, being able to tot up huge columns of figures as quickly as one of those vast computers with the reel to reel tapes they used to have. Naturally, due to his social class, his lack of education and his upbringing, this meant that he became a degenerate gambler, a serial embezzler and, eventually, a guest of her majesty. He never had a pot to piss in and died in poverty, just like he'd been born into it. He was an abandoned child, brought up in orphanages and foster homes without any family and now he's been buried alone with a webcam service and a masked vicar. His wife, my aunt, got the virus at the same time, too, but she survived against enormous odds and was released into a residential home where she undoubtedly inadvertently infected and killed her fellow governmentally deemed disposables. Poor cow's got dementia and doesn't know whether to shit or wind her wristwatch. But, y'know, the miracle of life and all that stuff. It giveth with one hand and taketheth with the other, I suppose.

My condolences to Mr Pike, SteveDave, Tonyx3 and anyone else I've overlooked. And fuck Boris Johnson, fuck Matt Hancock, fuck Priti Patel, fuck the Dominics and all of those heartless, gutless, mercenary, hateful cunts and fuck the selfish, shit-thick servile arseholes  who voted for them and excuse and attempt to justify their rancid behaviour.

RIP Bob. 

[Egyptian Feast]

Condolences Doomy Dwyer. Your uncle sounded like an amazing bloke. RIP Bob.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Yeah, I'm sorry to hear that Doomy, and my condolences go to everyone else in the thread too.

[Smeraldina Rima]

Sorry, Doomy. I liked your Bob isn't my uncle joke.

[Twit 2]

Lovely eulogy there. Wistful and generous of spirit, like a Troisième République harlot in a louche salon.

[non capisco]

Sorry to hear of your loss, Doomy. A typically vivid and warm eulogy. As someone who once also looked a lot like Stan Laurel before I piled on a bit of timber I salute your Uncle Bob. May the road always still rise to meet him.

[Doomy Dwyer]

Thanks all. You're a lovely bunch of bastards.

Sorry, Doomy. I liked your Bob isn't my uncle joke.

I'd like to think that somehow the Bob's not yer uncle joke will get us through this darkness. It's probably a better bet than the current government, RIGHT KIDS?

[Jockice]

Bad news Doomy. But a great bit of writing.

[Dex Sawash]

The long time partner of my mate Zed died of it last week, just found out about it. He's in his 40s and she was about the same age. Lives in Oregon these days so missed whole thing due to not looking at fb.

[Jockice]

Sorry about that Dex.

[Dex Sawash]

Sorry about that Dex.

Not looking at Facebook isn't a problem but thanks