Too many losses

[sonia]

My reading list is reeling today from the news that eftychia has died suddenly. Her memory for a blessing! I'm sorry for your loss, our loss, the world's loss.

I only knew her via her daily quotes, which I enjoyed and learned from. I'm hearing now that in addition to providing that daily gift to the world, she was a wonderful musician and wise and warm person, with an extensive website (under her old name).

Two of my coworkers had their fathers die suddenly in the last couple of weeks. Two out of a group of ten. A good friend of mine died recently, not quite as suddenly but still more quickly than expected from gall bladder cancer.

Breathing. Holding space for individual and collective grief.

I thought there was a sequel to Naomi Kritzer's So Much Cooking (her prescient pandemic story) where there's a parade and someone is handing out ribbons for anyone who's grieving, but I don't see it on her website. We need community support around grief.

And speaking of cooking and food shortages, I stopped by the local supermarket for eggs today, and the egg section was bare of everything except a sign saying "one carton per shopper." I asked the checkout person, and she said bird flu has resulted in a shortage. Didn't see that coming! At a different market, the 15 lb bag of rice I bought was nearly double the price of the previous one. Scary times all around.

Comments

[julian]

Oh, man. I'm sorry about your friend. (and your co-workers.)

Our potential egg shortage (in Massachusetts) was (back a few months anyway) more about a law approved by voters in *2016* that would have put more protections in for chickens, and which the chicken farmers then did absolutely nothing about. I now find that the solution to this was to modify that law, which annoys the hell out of me. And the prices still went up anyway, somewhat. This being your comment section and not my blog, I shall stop fulminating, but anyway, solidarity.

[julian]

Also, I dunno about a sequel to So Much Cooking, but have you read Little Free Library?

[tshuma]

I also only knew her through others, and she seems to have touched nearly everyone I know.

[altamira16]

Someone else on my reading list mentioned eftychia's death. I am sorry that you lost a friend.

[panisdead]

I'm sorry to hear of this community loss in eftychia.

[ofearthandstars]

I am so sorry to hear that you have lost friends. ♥

[sonia]

Thank you.

That sounds infuriating about the Massachusetts law around chickens and the way that all turned out. Capitalism sucks. >:(

[sonia]

Yes! Just reread it via your link, too. Found some fanfiction for it on ao3 while looking for my remembered sequel there (didn't find it).

[sonia]

I hope she had a sense of how known and loved she was.

[sonia]

Thank you.

[sonia]

I feel like the world is coming unstitched around us as we lose too many connection-makers.

(I am enjoying seeing your raven icon around!)

[sonia]

Thank you. Somehow your comment tipped me over into realizing, oh yeah, I did mention losing my friend, it's not just the more distant (for me) loss of eftychia. Which brought needed tears.

[amethyst73]

I'm so sorry to hear of your friends and their losses (and your loss of a friend).

There's murmurs that it's not avian flu that's causing egg price spikes, it's price gouging. But that's different from actual shortages, which is what you've seen. (No issues with supply at my local Safeway, fwiw.)

[sonia]

Thanks for the sympathy.

Huh about the egg prices. I'm not surprised to hear it, since avian flu isn't new, but I haven't seen this kind of drama around it before. I went to a different store and haven't had any trouble getting eggs there. Not sure what was up with the first one I went to. Their prices are generally higher too, so I'll just have to bike to the other store instead of walking over there.