The State of the Soon
Where do I start?
To say the last several years has been challenging would be an understatement. The TL;DR is that alongside the challenge of COVID times, my wife Fern died from cancer and I got a new job.
The New Zealand government did such a great job keeping its people safe in 2020. For sure it was tough, and some people suffered more during lockdown. Many people were unable to enter the country as a quarantine system (Managed Isolation & Quarantine) was put in place and demand far outstrippped supply. But it was extremely successful in keeping COVID-19 out. By the end of 2021 the total number of people who died of COVID was 51, and that's out of a population of 5.1 million. (Once COVID protections were relaxed New Zealand's case numbers & deaths spiked. Currently, 3,376 people have died from COVID in New Zealand, a stark contrast to the pre-2022 number of 51.)
Fern & I worked from home in 2020 and after ironing out a few unexpected issues, it was a good arrangement. We initially set up together in the living room but soon realised that having different Zoom meetings at the same time didn't work (and some of Fern's Zooms were about sensitive patient details), so we set up home offices in different rooms.
Around mid-2020 Fern thought she'd strained her ribs. The GP recommended physio but that didn't help. The pain got progressively worse, including backache, over the next months, until it was debilitating. Increasing numbers of tests were done to rule out at first the common causes, so it wasn't until in December, just before Christmas that we got the dreaded diagnosis. Fern's breast cancer had come back & the reason her ribs & back hurt was because the cancer had had metastasized and spread, to her ribs, her spine, her skull. Fern started chemotherapy and luckily Pharmac approved the recommended drug recently, so thanks to New Zealand's healthcare system, it was free.
Unfortunately it didn't work out for Fern and in May 2021, six months after the diagnosis Fern died peacefully at home (this is summing up A LOT OF STUFF). I didn't think I would be widowed at 52, but here we are. Everyone experiences grief differently. Me, I have been quite open about my grief. Some days are better than others and I am still taking it one day at a time. Overall, I am about as o.k. as I can be under the circumstances, but it still hurts so much. Also: "Fuck cancer."
Around May 2022, I changed jobs. I had been in the privileged position of being able to work as a fixed-term contract lab technician on different research projects for nearly twenty years. Fern having a permanent fulltime job as a Medical Laboratory Scientist gave me the luxury of taking on fixed-term contracts. Worst case scenario might have been us having to get by for one income (Fern's) while I looked for the next contract. As it was, I was able to chain together fixed-term contracts so I was never out of work, for nearly twenty years.
But since Fern died, I felt the need for more stability in my employment (or just stability in general). So when an opening for a permanent job became available, I applied and was successful. So I am no longer a Research Technician, but still work in a laboratory setting as a Lab Technician/Manager. Part of the job is day-to-day management of a research lab. The other part is helping to deliver laboratory teaching. I make sure that all the equipment, materials & reagents are in place when the students need them, so that their lab sessions run smoothly, which involves a lot of logistics & being well-organised. So far, it's gone well.
So that's me. Still alive, still grieving, still taking it one day at a time.
Even before 2020 my presence here has got very sporadic, and now, I hardly check in here anymore. If you want to find me, I am around elseweb.
Hope you are well, wherever you are.
Elseweb me:
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/soonleenz.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soonleenz/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SoonLeeNZ
P.S. I have watching & reading a lot of media that is the equivalent of "comfort food", which includes rewatching things like "The Good Place", or "Avatar: The Last Airbender". And when "Everything Everywhere All at Once" came out, I loved it so much I saw it twice in the theatre & even wrote an appreciation of it.
To say the last several years has been challenging would be an understatement. The TL;DR is that alongside the challenge of COVID times, my wife Fern died from cancer and I got a new job.
The New Zealand government did such a great job keeping its people safe in 2020. For sure it was tough, and some people suffered more during lockdown. Many people were unable to enter the country as a quarantine system (Managed Isolation & Quarantine) was put in place and demand far outstrippped supply. But it was extremely successful in keeping COVID-19 out. By the end of 2021 the total number of people who died of COVID was 51, and that's out of a population of 5.1 million. (Once COVID protections were relaxed New Zealand's case numbers & deaths spiked. Currently, 3,376 people have died from COVID in New Zealand, a stark contrast to the pre-2022 number of 51.)
Fern & I worked from home in 2020 and after ironing out a few unexpected issues, it was a good arrangement. We initially set up together in the living room but soon realised that having different Zoom meetings at the same time didn't work (and some of Fern's Zooms were about sensitive patient details), so we set up home offices in different rooms.
Around mid-2020 Fern thought she'd strained her ribs. The GP recommended physio but that didn't help. The pain got progressively worse, including backache, over the next months, until it was debilitating. Increasing numbers of tests were done to rule out at first the common causes, so it wasn't until in December, just before Christmas that we got the dreaded diagnosis. Fern's breast cancer had come back & the reason her ribs & back hurt was because the cancer had had metastasized and spread, to her ribs, her spine, her skull. Fern started chemotherapy and luckily Pharmac approved the recommended drug recently, so thanks to New Zealand's healthcare system, it was free.
Unfortunately it didn't work out for Fern and in May 2021, six months after the diagnosis Fern died peacefully at home (this is summing up A LOT OF STUFF). I didn't think I would be widowed at 52, but here we are. Everyone experiences grief differently. Me, I have been quite open about my grief. Some days are better than others and I am still taking it one day at a time. Overall, I am about as o.k. as I can be under the circumstances, but it still hurts so much. Also: "Fuck cancer."
Around May 2022, I changed jobs. I had been in the privileged position of being able to work as a fixed-term contract lab technician on different research projects for nearly twenty years. Fern having a permanent fulltime job as a Medical Laboratory Scientist gave me the luxury of taking on fixed-term contracts. Worst case scenario might have been us having to get by for one income (Fern's) while I looked for the next contract. As it was, I was able to chain together fixed-term contracts so I was never out of work, for nearly twenty years.
But since Fern died, I felt the need for more stability in my employment (or just stability in general). So when an opening for a permanent job became available, I applied and was successful. So I am no longer a Research Technician, but still work in a laboratory setting as a Lab Technician/Manager. Part of the job is day-to-day management of a research lab. The other part is helping to deliver laboratory teaching. I make sure that all the equipment, materials & reagents are in place when the students need them, so that their lab sessions run smoothly, which involves a lot of logistics & being well-organised. So far, it's gone well.
So that's me. Still alive, still grieving, still taking it one day at a time.
Even before 2020 my presence here has got very sporadic, and now, I hardly check in here anymore. If you want to find me, I am around elseweb.
Hope you are well, wherever you are.
Elseweb me:
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/soonleenz.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soonleenz/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SoonLeeNZ
P.S. I have watching & reading a lot of media that is the equivalent of "comfort food", which includes rewatching things like "The Good Place", or "Avatar: The Last Airbender". And when "Everything Everywhere All at Once" came out, I loved it so much I saw it twice in the theatre & even wrote an appreciation of it.