The (hopefully) final blast of winter is here, cold, grey and wet. Hopefully just till tomorrow and then the forecast says temperatures should climb and the sun should emerge.
The relative has rallied a little. He has been conscious throughout, and it must be terrifying to be in that high oxygen room surrounded by PPE. He controls his family’s finances tightly, and simply to pay the hospital bills his children had to don full PPE and go in to persuade him to sign some cheques – can’t have alleviated his fear and paranoia, I’m sure.
Another friend tells me that her sister is recovering now but her lungs are damaged. Her own sister-in-law seemed well enough, got through the infection, and then was found to have haemoglobin levels so low that her heart was nearly starved of oxygen and her appearance of good health was due to water retention. When the excess water was drained, she became skeletal.
This afternoon we went to the local government representative to sponsor food parcels for 10 families for Ramazan which starts next week. This is part of signalling that we are good members of the community, and though I suspect that the distribution will not be to the refugees I would prioritise, they should still go to people in genuine need this difficult spring.