It Tolls For Thee

The back of the Care Home in Mourão, very much part of the community, where everyone has a Mum or Dad or Auntie or neighbour or... and where almost every one of the residents has tested positive for Covid, and where seven have now died, one lady aged 103 today. As I walked into town, to collect our post from the post office, the bells were tolling almost the whole time:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee. 
- John Donne, a 16-17thC English Catholic

Gratefuls:
- seeing someone other than Mike, even if masked and at a distance
- that I can see Mike every day!
- good chats with our kids and grandkids (when will I hug them again??)
- relatively good Portuguese politicians