Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. Turkey roasting in the oven, the smell of fresh pies baking (especially my friend Anne’s masterpieces), mounds of mashed potatoes, and sweet potato casserole. And family and friends. Each year, we travel from places near and far to be together for an annual feast and day of gratitude. Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated in Belgium, but it is at our house! When COVID canceled Thanksgiving last year, I was despondent. But things were going better in 2021, for a while.
Damn! All of a sudden, Europe became the epicenter of the COVID pandemic. As in the U.S., it’s a pandemic of the unvaccinated, although breakthrough infections are appearing. It’s just so frustrating.
Austria went into complete lockdown. Friends in Germany and the Netherlands are also gearing up for closures there. Freedoms are being rolled back to protect their citizens. All the magical memories of Thanksgiving in New York, Connecticut, and the Midwest — memories that I hoped to recreate here — would have to wait another year.
This year, I looked forward to preparing an American Thanksgiving feast for friends from Belgium, England, Ireland, the Netherlands and the U.S.A. A Butterball turkey, procured by a friend from a U.S. commissary, was eagerly awaiting removal from the freezer. I’d pulled up a new recipe for pumpkin cheesecake and even made my first-ever cranberry-orange relish. It was going to be a special day! Until it wasn’t.
An Unwelcome Visitor
On Sunday, my significant other and I stood in his kitchen sampling gravy recipes for the Thursday feast. A few hours later, my phone rang. It seems as if an unwelcome visitor made an appearance as he wasn’t feeling well. I never thought he’d get COVID. He’d had all three of his vaccinations and was in good health. And he was always masked and careful.
About an hour later, his fever rose. He was shivering uncontrollably and wrapped up in bed, wearing his winter coat and covered in blankets.
“These are the same symptoms I had after my vaccine,” he said. Oh, no. Could it be COVID? An antigen test the next day confirmed it. I was worried about him, but he was more concerned about my having to cancel my Thanksgiving plans since I was exposed.
I rushed out to get a COVID antigen test. For 8 euros (less than $10), it was worth it. I swabbed my nose, both nostrils! Next, I put the swab into the liquid in a test vial. Finally, I squeezed a few drops of the liquid from the vial onto the COVID test card. The control “C” showed up immediately. I waited and waited. The literature said a result should appear within 15 minutes.
There was a sigh of relief when no “T” appeared, indicating that I was COVID free, but I was still in isolation due to my close contact with someone with the disease. I’m just glad that my vaccine protected me!
COVID cancels Thanksgiving
And thus, Covid canceled Thanksgiving. I was angry, but not at my boyfriend. I was angry at all the anti-vaxxers rioting in Amsterdam, Brussels and Rotterdam. In Brussels, 35,000 protesters turned out to wage war against COVID restrictions. Some attacked police cars, looted and set things on fire. Unmasked mobs got onto public transport without masks, causing trains to stop service. The authorities had to talk sense into them so they’d put on their masks and let the train leave.
Members of my family berated me for my pro-vaccine stance, calling me judgmental and mean. I prefer to think of myself as well-informed and caring. I want friends and family to stay healthy and alive. If a vaccine can help, why are they fighting against it? I blame much of it on disinformation on social media — and the angry mobs.
Rage into the Night
My experience with angry mobs has been exclusively on television. Take the January 6 insurrection at the White House, for example. Angry white men turning into a hateful mob. There is much coverage on the American White supremacy movement here.
And then there are the mass “grab and go” attacks happening at luxury shops in the U.S. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of luxury goods — from Apple Macs and phones to Louis Vuitton bags — are being whisked away in trash bags with lawless thugs. What the heck is happening? Has COVID made everyone mad?
Well, the angry white men are here, too. And now, I am an angry white woman. I’m angry that these people are going out unmasked and unvaccinated, not caring about the fate of others. I shudder to think what might have happened if my boyfriend had not been vaccinated. Obviously, the vaccine worked for me, as I am COVID-free.
A Bit of Good News
We’ve seen vaccination rates going up in countries like France and Belgium, where you need a COVID safe pass to access many places. You can’t get into a cafe, restaurant or even take a cruise on the Seine in Paris without one. As more and more people are getting vaccinated, I pray the pandemic will start to recede. It would be nice to get back to normal, wouldn’t it? In the meantime, I’m planning a belated Thanksgiving celebration in December, and hoping nobody else gets sick.
