Jules Spotts and Ethel Goldberg

00:00 I am Gail Sinai. I am the facilitator of this call, and I'm 61 years old, and I am here again, with Ethel. And with jewels. Today is October 1st. 2021, Ethel, and Jules are each other's partner, and we have done a recording before and show us. I think you kind of left stuff with a little bit of a

00:28 Cliffhanger the last time. So I'm wondering if you can catch us up with what happened in our last all or previous taping where we were and

00:41 Start finishing that story. So what am I talking about when I say a cliffhanger?

00:48 How we left our last interview with the fact that I had been diagnosed positive with covid the day before our interview?

01:02 I thought we said very clearly, we did not want to start our interview with that since we did not in any way, want that to color.

01:12 The entire interview and simultaneously we felt it important. As we closed out our interview to the real enough that what was that reality? That Ethel and I were confronting I was fine and I had tested negative, but I was advised to get retested. Five days later since I had been with him and sure enough, 5 days later.

01:49 After I had returned to my home, in Cherry Hill to quarantined separately, iTube tested positive.

01:57 With my minor to moderate symptoms. And what were you vaccinated vaccinated or what was and had been since late winter? February for Jules March for men. And so we had

02:33 Begun to feel.

02:36 Very liberated and specially in the early part of the summer. We may have been shot before. Going out.

02:47 New restaurants in spending time with friends on meth and not worrying about social distancing. He probably also mention, we got invited to a very wonderful wedding which way is Monday? July 31st. We're in four days later. We were notified that people with been at the wedding, although totally thoroughly vetted at tested positive and that's what sent us to go get this stupid. I have before we describe Gail the

03:30 What it was like to.

03:33 Go through the quarantine rest and Recovery.

03:37 The official verdict, the official verdict. At the end of this process is SLE and I kicked covid ass. Yeah.

03:51 There is Jules and Ethel kicking covitz ass, right? Which is sort of mistake. Thank you. Make a anticlimactic, but it's okay. That's what we're here to do. Ruin climaxes spoil, the story because it was a cliffhanger, the last time right there. Bexley. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you for sparing us the suspense of that. Thank you.

04:24 It's a stepping back into that moment, which for me was really scary. I mean usually as a facilitator, I wouldn't be this engaged but feels like it happened to the three of us in a funny way. In a storycorps. We left you with a cliffhanger as well. Gail you did right? Let's tell everyone what happened cuz it's okay.

04:53 The the biggest symptom was just an immense amount of fatigue and inability to do almost anything. I am not a person who naps during the day. I was taking two 2 hour naps per day.

05:19 To walk from a living room chair to my dining room, table was a track that required sitting down and mediately to reconstitute energy.

05:37 That was the biggest symptom.

05:41 Although I didn't lose appetite or sorry. I didn't lose taste or smell. I see your Bonnie yogurt and organic Gatorade thirst quencher excited. He also had a little bit of a cough. My symptoms were the little milder, but I did have the fatigue I had the

06:17 Suppress appetite. I ate a little more.

06:23 For a few more choices than Jewels, but the sort of anything protein was a complete turn off the. I had no meat or fish for like two or three, two weeks or more. And then I said I looked at it and I can get it up and usually I would eat have I ate the whole thing. So I knew I had

06:56 Boston, major hurdle.

07:02 What was the emotional aspect I will add to quick?

07:13 Then yes, and they were really vignettes. Maybe three hours. Each one was on my birthday, which happened during the quarantine / beginning of rest. Every now, and it really was three hours of this is unfair. I did everything. I was supposed to be doing this wasn't supposed to happen. I was cautious, followed. All the guidelines vaccinated Etc.

07:45 Light Rail to go down last two to three hours, got myself off the light rail quickly, and one other day, as this was continuing with its fatigue and no appetite at all.

08:01 I had again, it may be a three-hour jaunt into a kind of oh my God, is this what it is my ever going to get better? This is why I have to adjust to this in a continuing way. This is what it is at trail and I wasn't myself off of that trail quickly. We were having after I return to Cherry Hill, which was four days after the first test, we were on the phone and texting quite a bit. And whenever I spoke to him early in the day, he would sound chipper and cheerful. And I think he was trying to cheer me up to and he said he felt a little better or somewhat better.

09:01 And pathetic, but now I'm going to go take a nap and that was the clue to me that he wasn't that much better because I had never known him to take a nap before.

09:16 So,

09:21 On the week, the following week.

09:24 I started to text enough in his voice and he had one FaceTime and he looked pretty good and

09:38 When do you think you'll be back? This might have been Monday or Tuesday? And he thought that he would feel up to the drive, which was a real challenge to get in his bar. Walk over to where he parked the car in the garage, which is like a block and a half away, get in the car, driving down the turnpike to Cherry Hill with a load of stuff in the car. And then unload. He said, Thursday and it was never a more wonderful. Welcome sight than when he appeared at my door. So I'm free on Thursday. Yes, he did. And we weren't

10:21 We were 97%. The 3% that was missing was we still didn't have enough energy to stay up to watch the 11 news for the purse is Stephen Colbert's monologue that took about another week, right? I would say so I want to make sure before we run out of time to add an important positive, if it took a lot of time for introspection.

10:53 Rosh, Hashanah are coming up to Montebello being preparation for.

10:59 And I think each of us really separately did the kind of introspection like we are somewhat older.

11:10 What do we want to really focus our energies on in the time that lies ahead? And each of us ended with a kind of resolution to withdraw from one or two things that were leadership functions that were consuming a fair amount of time and energy and really focus their energies on relationship with each other, family, friends, classes at the synagogue, right, synagogues and things that provide pleasure For Me Photography is in the men's spiritual experience and

12:00 The result was that as we got back to full recovery. Each of us did withdraw from one or two things and that was a real positive to come out of this and and I think we can credit the time spent alone with a lot of personal reflection and introspection. That wasn't down the depressive Trails. I had mentioned several moments ago, but really quite positive.

12:34 So is the reward of cop covid-19, there are secondary gains from covid, numbers steak, and the primary gain, going back to her original story. That if it hadn't been for covid and lockdown, Jules Spotts wouldn't have spent 11 consecutive weeks in my house and

12:59 Growing our love for each other so that we realized that he did go back to New York for a dental appointment that we really didn't want to be a part of any more. So,

13:14 And this separation Menses that resolved?

13:23 And so here we are healthy. A little older, a little wiser, and I'm still maintaining stubborn optimism. Thank you so much for sharing the end of this story. Of course, we overstepped a few minutes, but I think it's okay. And I'm going to thank you for sharing your wisdom and letting us all know that you kicked covid, SAS and you got something good from it.

13:57 Thank you Gayle. Thank you. Shabbat. Shalom.