One Million

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2022

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode contains strong language. Hilma Wolitzer lost her husband, Morty Wolitzer, a psychologist who loved cooking and jazz, on April 11, 2020. They had been together for 68 years. Mary-Margaret Waterbury’s uncle Michael Mantlo had introduced her to Nirvana, grunge and Elvis Costello. After Terrie Martin’s first born, April Marie Dawson, died at age 43, Ms. Martin said she carried around guilt for not taking more precautions. “I killed my daughter,” she said. “And I have learned nothing from loss.” Carmen Nitsche’s mother, Carmen Dolores Nitsche, died on May 14, 2020. They were only a few miles apart, but she said she was unable to hold her mother’s hand on her final journey. In the coming days, the number of known deaths from Covid-19 in the United States is expected to reach one million. We asked listeners to share memories about loved ones they have lost — and about what it’s like to grieve when it seems like the rest of the world is trying to move on. “Time keeps moving forward, and the world desperately wants to move past this pandemic,” one told us. “But my mother — she’s still gone.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	My husband, Morty Wallitzer, was a psychologist who loved jazz and cooking.
0:07.0	He died on April 11, 2020 when we were in separate hospitals with COVID.
0:15.0	We were both 90 years old then and had the great good fortune of 68 years together.
0:22.0	But the end was difficult and surreal.
0:26.0	We didn't have a chance to say goodbye and he was cremated with no one who loved him to see him off.
0:33.0	He seemed to have just vanished.
0:36.0	Now, almost two years later, I've come to acceptance.
0:41.0	But I still sleep on my own side of the bed wearing one of his t-shirts.
0:47.0	And sometimes I listen for the sound of his footsteps in the apartment and his voice in the morning.
0:55.0	My uncle Terry, who is also my godfather, died of COVID-19 on May 2, 2020.
1:11.0	Michael Matlow was my uncle, my mother, Nidia Lopez, and Lenny Potemianos, my great aunt.
1:18.0	He was an Air Force vet and a firefighter for decades. He was my godfather, I had the person who introduced me to Nirvana.
1:29.0	He was also Notre Dame Cathedral Latins, number one fan of all time.
1:36.0	And Grunge and Rock and Roll and Alpha Scostello.
1:40.0	He attended virtually every baseball and football practice and game. And lights barcaled from him.
1:50.0	From the New York Times, I'm Michael Babaro.
1:54.0	I lost my uncle.
1:56.0	My brother, Ed Ryan.
1:58.0	Michael Ware.
1:59.0	I died in April of 2020 at the age of 79.
2:02.0	He was the first person to really show me that adults could be silly and have fun.
2:08.0	In the coming days, the number of Americans who have died from COVID-19 will reach 1 million.
	...

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