Hi, my name is Katie.  I am your neighbor in Celina.  I’m asking you to wear a mask for me. 

It’s 2021, and at forty years old I am reviewing my will because I don’t know if I will make it to forty-one.  I am one of the immunocompromised.  I spend many nights wondering if tomorrow will be the day that I get coronavirus.  Sounds crazy right?  Hear me out.

I have an immune deficiency.  Covid will kill me.  I am your neighbor.  Maybe you’ve passed me at Kroger, or more likely, at Target.  I am a gymnastics mom.  I have a son who plays too many videogames and loves to hang with his friends.  I want you to know me, before you decide that my life isn’t worth wearing a mask. 

I received the Moderna vaccine in December and January.   I’m on daily medications to try my best to prevent an infection. I read the news for the latest data and trends on coronavirus cases, and the newest precautions I should take. I order supplies online and limit my time in public settings.  This is what I have to do. I’m now asking for your help.

I am terrified to send my children to school next week.  We do not have a choice, because there is no virtual option, and we cannot homeschool.  Our governor has taken away the mask protection requirements that we had last year.  Were our schools given a choice, so they could assess their population and the needs of their students?  Were districts allowed to set up virtual options for their at-risk population?  No, we have become pawns in a game of literal life and death.  Possibly my death.  Possibly your child’s death.

Our children will not be socially distanced.  Classrooms and hallways will be crowded.  My children will wear their masks at school, because they want to protect their mother, but also because I have taught them to care about their fellow classmates and whomever might be at-risk in their lives.  Can you do the same for me?    I’m asking you to do this for me. I am pleading with you, please send your children in a mask, to help ensure I will live to raise mine.

If it is the time of personal responsibility as Governor Greg Abbott claims, then I am asking my fellow parents to please think of me when deciding how best you can be a responsible citizen when you send your child to school next week.