Believe me when I say I totally understand, not just in my own personal experiences but there isn't many I know that haven't announced deaths of loved ones and friends. It's not just even that alone, it's families and friends torn apart over the issue(s) and I think a lot of that can be explained in this post, people aren't making the connection because of the time lapse involved with some deaths.

I've yet to see one family picnic gathering this year at the park across the street. I've seen a couple of times it looked like someone celebrated a child's birthday over there but outside of that it hasn't been this quiet around here in over a decade. Even the college houses around me have changed, there isn't ten, fifteen kids crammed up into a house.

I think for a large part of that it is that more people than we know have experienced loss in the last two years and it's weighing heavy on the decisions that they make, minimizing the risk factors.