Mourning # 30
I mourn the people I know and the people
I don’t know, the people I care about
and those I don’t give a damn about
this death is not legitimate death
it is a cheating death, that creeps up
and takes the strong and bold, the best
of us: doctors teachers nurses preachers
whole families gone in a cyclone
flying bodies like loose plastic bags risen up
into the atmosphere. I mourn you all
the grandparents aunts uncles cousins
fathers mothers brothers sisters friends
all whose time had come, most who were
not given a chance to complete their
self-actualization, their journey. It is
so sad. And it’s not over yet.
---- Dr. Rebecca Shadowen, infectious disease
specialist in Bowling Green Kentucky used to tell
everyone: “This isn’t politics, this is science.”
Dr. Shadowen was hospitalized with SARS CoV-2
for four months before she succumbed. On Face-
book she wrote: “If you could save the life of another
person without harming your own, would you?”
Dr. Shadowen advocated for mask-wearing and social
distancing, hand-washing from the beginning, hoping
Bowling Green would be a model for the rest of KY.
Dr. Shadowen was working as a member of the Bowling
Green-Warren County Coronavirus Workgroup when
she became ill. Her husband, David, took her to the
hospital because she was having trouble breathing
for four months she was on and off ventilators, in
and out of ICU, when she was lucid she worked from
her hospital bed, sharing what she was experiencing
several times she seemed to be recovering, thought
David Shadowen, also a doctor. Rebecca Shadowen
died on September 11th surrounded by her husband
and two adult children. She was 62.
David and Rebecca were college sweethearts in the 1970’s
they decided to go into medicine together and specialize in
infectious diseases. She worked at the Medical Center at
Bowling Green for 30 years and mentored many students
and residents. After she became sick she begged the county
authorities to adopt a local mask ordinance without success.
After her death the governor tweeted that Dr. Shadowen was,
“a front line hero.” She had probably contracted covid from
a home health aide that infected her mother, her husband and
her daughter. Her son Jesse tested negative. Before she got
sick, Rebecca Shadowen, went into the empty Broadway United
Methodist Church to pray. She was aware of the risks and
responsibilities of health care workers. At the memorial service
former patients said: “I am alive today because she saved my life.”
Her daughter Kathryn remembered that when they went out
around town together people would stop her mother to thank her.
“It was really powerful to be the kid of someone who saved people.
A lot of kids think of their parents as heroes. Mine actually was.”
END OF THE MOURNING POEMS
NOT OF THE MOURNING
