Covid Interrupts My Chance To Celebrate Additional Grandbabies

By GARY NAGER Editorial

For the past three+ years, Jannah and I have been blessed with two amazing grandchildren — Jannah’s daughter Lauren and her husband Albert Cione’s beautiful daughter Rosie and my younger son Jake and his wife Meghan’s equally incredible son Jackson.

In December, Jannah’s son Michael and his wife Caitlin welcomed their son John to the world and since then, there has been a flurry of additional baby activity in our families.

On Feb. 28, Lauren, Albert and Rosie added baby Giovanni Albert to their family and only eight days later, Jake, Meghan and Jax welcomed baby Maverick James.

As if that wasn’t enough, a few days after we went to press with this issue, my older son Jared and his wife Mary Luz were expected to welcome their first-born son Liam Dario to this ever-expanding group.

Now, like any proud grandpa, I would have been thrilled to have been part of all these celebrations, but it wasn’t meant to be, at least not for me right away.

The original plan was for me to join Jannah in North Carolina right after baby Gio was born, but not only was my schedule extremely tight at that time, I also started to feel a little sick the day I was scheduled to leave Florida. I cancelled my flight and two days later, I tested positive for Covid-19.

Now, thanks to having been twice vaccinated and twice boosted, my symptoms were extremely mild, but not only would I not have been allowed anywhere near the hospital with a positive Covid test, I simply wasn’t going to risk bringing that problem to any of these newly expanded families.

I was happy to test negative a day or so after baby Maverick was born, but not only was I concerned about any lingering effects of the illness, I also worried that upon her return from the Tarheel State, Jannah (also twice-vaccinated and twice-boosted) could catch it from me and possibly infect any member of either of my sons’ families. So, as of the day I’m writing this editorial, I still haven’t gotten to meet any of these new grandbabies.

And, while that fact is a little sad for me, I do feel fortunate yet again that #1, a week after returning home, Jannah has shown no signs of catching it; and #2, that this particular bout with the illness was mild, short and is already behind me.

So, even though my celebrating so far has had to be from a distance, I am happy that it won’t be long before I get to meet all four of mine and Jannah’s new grandsons — as Michael, Caitlin and John will visit sometime in April, I will hopefully be able to meet both Maverick and Liam before this issue hits mailboxes and will get to see baby Gio not too long thereafter.

After losing my father a few weeks ago, I am blessed to have the circle of life come full circle for me. Mine and Jannah’s children are happy, healthy and all have new bundles of joy for us to enjoy.

May God bless them all.

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