6 | FEBRUARY 4 • 2021 

4:30 A.M. THURSDAY, 
JAN. 14, 2021
W

aking up at 4:30 
this morning was 
standard procedure 
for me. It was an expected daily 
awakening usually reserved for 
a quick bathroom run and then 
back to sleep. It was exactly like 
the bathroom run 
I had at 2:30 this 
morning. (At 66 
years old you chart 
these things.) But 
on this morning 
my iPhone had 
more than the 
time illuminated 
on the screen — there was an 
email from Beaumont Health 
updating me about my COVID 
vaccination. 
And that’s all it took for the 
flood gates to open … of my 
mind that is. 
This was vaccination day for 
me. I would be getting my first 
dose at 5:10 this afternoon. So 
why was Beaumont emailing 
me at 4:30 in the morning?! A 
rational mind would assume it’s 
an appointment reminder. I said 
a rational mind. My mind was 
busy thinking they’re changing 
their mind or worse … they ran 
out of vaccines!

Sleep gave way to the anxiety 
and exhilaration of what I would 
find in this early morning trans-
mission, accompanied by a rush 
of thoughts of how I felt on this, 
my vaccination day. But I didn’t 
know my My Beaumont Chart 
password by heart, so I had to 
venture down to my office to get 
it — which I did — after that 
bathroom run.
The email? It was an appoint-
ment reminder. Imagine that? 
I couldn’t fall back asleep 
because I was having a very 
unexpected reaction to vaccina-
tion day. “Unexpected reaction,
” 
admittedly not the best choice of 
words hours before getting my 
vaccination.
I was actually feeling a vari-
ety of emotions. Similar to the 
excitement I used to feel on my 
first day of school, mixed with 
the anticipatory anxiety little 
camper Alan used to experience 
after waking up too early the 
morning of my annual summer 
bus ride to Camp Tanuga. 
My joy and gratitude of finally 
getting vaccinated was reaching a 
crescendo in this early morning 
hour, like reaching the top of the 
first hill on a rollercoaster. But 
instead of throwing my arms up 
in sheer exultation, a melancholy 
feeling came over me. What 

about the hundreds of thou-
sands of Americans, more than 
400,000, who have died before 
getting their chance at living to 
see another day? And the count-
less others who have suffered and 
continue to experience COVID’s 
lasting effects? And the millions 
who must endure what appears 
to be the snail’s pace of receiving 
a vaccination appointment? It 
literally took my breath away.
I’m thinking of our frontline 
workers who’ve sacrificed so 
much, some their lives, so oth-
ers could live. I’m thinking of 
the thousands of residents in 
our senior communities, those 
who’ve succumbed to the virus, 
and those who continue to battle 
heart-wrenching isolation, hop-
ing that in this vaccination, there 
will be light at the end of the 
pandemic tunnel. To that end, 
I’m also thinking of the incred-
ible minds of the scientists and 
researchers whose expediency in 
developing the vaccines is noth-
ing short of a miracle.
COVID-19 has taken us all on 
the ultimate emotional roller-
coaster ride. For months, we’ve 

ridden up and down with news 
that on one day brings us hope, 
only to be filled with new uncer-
tainties the next day. But unlike 
typical rollercoaster rides, we’re 
not getting off this one yelling, 
“Let’s do it again!” 
Ironically, when I first typed 
the word communities above, as 
in senior communities? Upon 
proofing, I discovered it came 
out as “immunities.
” I’m going to 
take that as a very good sign. 

At 6:15 a.m. on this 
momentous day
I went back to bed for a few 
more minutes of sleep. As I laid 
my head down, I gave thanks 
for the vaccination I was about 
to receive and prayed that you 
would be next in line. 

P.S. At 6:27 
I got up to go the bathroom 
again. 

Alan Muskovitz is a writer, voice-over/

acting talent, speaker, and emcee. Visit his 

website at laughwithbigal.com,“Like” Al on 

Facebook and reach him at amuskovitz@

renmedia.us.

Alan 

Muskovitz

PURELY COMMENTARY

Holocaust 
Remembrance Day

The 27th of January, it was 
that day in 1945 that the infa-
mous Auschwitz death camp 
was liberated and designated 
as the International Holocaust 
Remembrance Day, the day 
we remember the 6 million of 
our people who perished in 

the Holocaust, or Shoah as it is 
called in my native Hebrew.
Although I nor my parents 
are Holocaust survivors, it 
seems that it was an integral 
part of my life as long as I can 
remember.
Both my parents left their 
respective shetls in Eastern 
Europe for then Palestine in 
the early 1920s, but their fam-
ilies whom they left behind 

were all murdered by the Nazis 
and were deeply mourned by 
them. My mother especially 
grieved for a beloved younger 
sister who almost joined her in 
Palestine but didn’t. The hus-
band came to scout the land 
where my father, who owned 
ice boxes in Tel Aviv, promised 
him a job, something necessary 
for getting a permit from the 
British Mandate, which ruled 

Palestine, and all seemed OK 
for the family to make alliyah, 
but then he changed his mind 
and they all perished.
So on the 27th of January, I 
lit the traditional memorial can-
dle for all the family members 
whom I never had the chance to 
know but for whom my parents 
grieved their entire lives.

— Rachel Kapen

West Bloomfield

letters

for openers
Vaccination Day Diary!

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Max Broock Realtors Bloomf
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Congratulates its #1 agents,
Melanie S. Bishop & Noah S. Bishop-Cohen,
on their best year ever!

Over $61 million closed with over 90 homes sold!

