I keep thinking I've heard everything, then . . .

Every time I think, "Now I've heard everything," something else comes up and reminds me that no, I haven't heard everything yet.

The latest item on the "now I've heard everything" list, also known as the, "What the . . . (fill in the blank)" list?

You know how at the Bills-Bengals game this past week, when Damar Hamlin showed up to encourage his team?

That wasn't Damar Hamiln.

It was a clone.

You see, Damar Hamlin really died. So the NFL and the FBI substituted a clone because they don't want to admit that Hamlin really died from the COVID-19 vaccine.

This is why Hamlin has not done an interview since he was released from the hospital. And also why, when he went to the Bills-Bengals game, he came dressed in a mask, sunglasses, and hoodie.

The person in the SkyBox that was filmed giving the "heart" signal to his team?

That was the clone.

And by the way, he wasn't really giving the "heart" sign. 

He was flashing Illuminati signals.

This is the theory floated on Twitter by a particular Tweeter whom I will not name. And sadly, there are those going along with it. 

Damar Hamlin decided to troll the trolls by posting a picture of himself posing next to a mural someone painted of Damar making his "heart" gesture and commenting, "Clone".

So let's see:  

Damar Hamlin collapsed from cardiac arrest on January 2nd. But his cardiac arrest wasn't caused by a rare condition called commotio cordis. Or possibly another type of heart condition.

It was caused by the "jab"; i.e. the COVID vaccine.

So the NFL went into coverup mode and brought in a body double to play Damar Hamlin.

He was trained for 72 hours to walk and behave like Hamlin, including the famous heart gesture. 

And it was the FBI that brought in the body double.

When he appears in public -- which he has done rarely -- he wears a mask, sunglasses and hoodie so that people won't know that he's not the real Damar.

This is why he won't show his face and why he hasn't done an interview since being released from the hospital. 

If you sit down and think about it: 

- Wouldn't his family sense that there was something "off" about their son?

- Why would the FBI be interested in bringing in a body double and helping the NFL cover up a death?

- Why would the NFL cover up a player death in the first place?

- Wouldn't the team know that there was something "off" about their friend and teammate? 

Has it occurred to anyone that the reason why Damar Hamlin hasn't done any interviews is because he's still being treated for his heart condition?

That the reason he wears a mask in public is because he has a heart condition and is now immunocompromised? 

That he wears glasses and a hoodie in public because he'd probably be swarmed if people knew who he was? 

I've read YouTube conspiracy comments about the JFK assassination, the RFK assassination, the 1969 moon landing, and the 9/11 attacks. A few days ago, I blocked a Tweeter who commented that they found it hard to believe that 19 "terrorists" took down a whole country with "box cutters" (the words in quotes are from the tweet.) 

Six million Jews died in concentration camps, men did walk on the moon, the birth certificate is real, jet fuel does melt steel, and Oswald acted alone. 

Add to that list: Damar Hamlin does not have a body double.

It becomes very hard to keep your faith in humanity when you read certain comments on social media. These days, I just look at them, shake my head, and move on after a well-deserved eye roll for the commenter.

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.

I 

Okay, we can breathe now . . .

On Monday night, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, #3, collapsed on the field during a game with the Cincinnati Bengals. 

Most of us have seen the terrifying picture of Bills and Bengals players kneeling in a circle around him, shielding Hamlin from view as the NFL’s medical team performed CPR on him. 

On arrival at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Hamlin had to be resuscitated yet again. (When I heard that, I feared the worst.) 

The doctors sedated Hamlin and placed him on a ventilator. 

By Wednesday, we were starting to hear positive reports of his improvement.

When he awoke on Thursday, he was still on a breathing tube but able to write on a clipboard, “Did we win?” 

The response:  Damar, you won.  You won the game of life. 

A doctor reported that “not only are the lights on, he’s home.”

The world started letting out the breath it had been holding.

By Thursday evening, Hamlin was breathing on his own, and on Friday morning, the Buffalo Bills released the welcome news:  He’d talked to his teammates via video. When he came up on screen, the team stood up and clapped for him. Bills player Dion Dawkins said afterwards, “We got our boy, man! That’s all that matters.” 

Hamlin told them, “Love you guys,” and made what is a signature gesture for him, both hands coming together and forming a heart. 

Today, he posted on Instagram.

He thanked everyone for their support, for their love, and asked for prayers for the long road ahead. 

For someone who’d had to be revived twice at the beginning of the week, it’s a remarkable recovery.  

On Sunday, the team will take the field - without Hamlin - against the New England Patriots. I’m wondering what they will be thinking. The good news about Damar Hamlin may be the shot of adrenaline the team needs to beat the Patriots. Or, it’s possible that the mental roller coaster they’ve been on may have taken a negative toll. 

Commentators and journalists have talked about the effect of Hamlin’s injury: first, that “life is more important than football,” how traumatizing it was for players to see his collapse, the fear that he might not make it . . . and now, the relief that we feel since he’s awake and able to communicate.

A toy drive he’d started, with a goal of $2500, has received around $8 million. 

Players, fans, and others associated with the NFL are posting “Love for Damar” with the number 3. Some teams have outlined the number 3 on the 30-yard line in the Bills’ team colors of red and blue. 

But even though so much of the news sounds positive, Damar Hamlin is still in critical condition. And while I was checking the Internet for this post, I found in a CNN article that Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest, which is caused by electrical disturbances that cause the heart to stop beating properly. What Hamlin suffered was not a heart attack or heart failure. I had not known there was a difference between “heart attack” and “cardiac arrest”. Thank God the medical personnel got to Hamlin in time. Now the doctors want to know what caused that cardiac arrest. 

Damar Hamlin is not totally out of the woods yet. He has, as he himself says, a long road ahead. 

But now, the world can finally let out the breath it’s been holding all week. 

#lovefordamar

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.

Sudden death

 Last month I experienced the sudden death of two people.

One was a Facebook friend who’d I’d been around for 20 years.

The other was a cousin of mine.

And we almost saw it happen again last night.

The first person, Kathy, I “met” during the days of Yahoo Groups. I joined a group made up of people who’d all read two books, Karen and With Love From Karen, both written by Marie Killilea. Marie’s daughter Karen was born in 1940 and a year later, diagnosed with cerebral palsy. It took her parents 23 doctors and two and a half years to find proper help. I read both books when I was 13 and was captivated. We in the group swapped stories about the effect the books had on us and swapped stories about each other. I joined the group right before my son was diagnosed with autism and the group was a support to me during that time. 

Kathy was one of the first people to say hello to me when I joined the group. Later, she formed another online group for people who loved books as she did. She was such a fan of the Betsy-Tacy series by Maud Hart Lovelace. She loved God and was enormously proud of her family. 

She died in her sleep in mid-December, while she and her husband were on their way to a cruise to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary. One of our mutual Facebook friends messaged me and when I saw the words, “Kathy is dead,” I was stunned. The only comfort I can find is that she went to sleep and woke up in heaven. 

I saw an enormous outpouring of love and memories for her on Facebook. I thought of three people who would be totally heartbroken (in addition to her husband): her best friend, and two other dear friends she met on Facebook. 

She lived a life that will be remembered, and you can’t ask for more than that.

The other was my cousin Bill, who I wrote about yesterday. His sudden death came when he went to burn some brush and the wind blew up. He either suffered smoke inhalation, or a heart attack, or both, and died. His funeral was yesterday, and since he broadcast high school sports for a number of years,  it was appropriate to hold his funeral in the Harlan County High School gymnasium. From the number of comments I saw on Facebook, Harlan County lost a legend. 

Last night, a young Buffalo Bills football player, Damar Hamlin, tackled a Cincinnati Bengals player, Tee Higgins.  They both went down and got up. Nothing remarkable. It’s normal, and expected, to see tackles in football games.  Right? 

Except two seconds after he got up, Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field and this time, he did not get up.

The medical personnel raced onto the field, and both Bills players and Bengals players formed a human wall around Hamlin, shielding him from the audience and from the TV cameras. 

Hamlin was given CPR on the field in those agonizing moments before the ambulance arrived.  

Bills players - and Bengals players - cried, and many of them knelt in prayer for their fallen teammate. 

After an hour or so, and discussions with players and between both coaches, the game was suspended at 5:58 of the first quarter. They will not resume this game this week. Which I think is good. If the teams had tried to play again, no one would have been able to concentrate. All they’d see is the body of their fellow player, lying on the ground, his arms outstretched, receiving CPR so that he could just survive. 

I’m watching a clip of the Monday Night Football broadcast from last night. One of the speakers said he’d never seen an ambulance come onto the field. I have, one time on TV, where someone had a neck injury. (I cannot remember who was playing or when it was.) They did bring the ambulance onto the field and take the player off. 

However, there’s never been a situation where a player collapsed, on live TV, and had to be given CPR before being loaded into an ambulance. 

Damar Hamlin is currently in critical condition in the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. He is alive. 

But we could have seen sudden death on the field last night.

The idea of sudden death scares me. Of waking up and finding my husband dead next to me, or of losing my son, or sister, or niece. I think it scares me because death is something that is out of my control. There is a verse in the book of Proverbs that says “no man has power over the day of his death”.  I get scared of being the one left behind having to deal with an estate. It also scares me to be the one to die and leave others to handle my affairs. 

What do I say? What is there to say in the face of sudden death? Of a relative? Of a person you only knew through a computer screen? Of a young athlete? 

“I’m sorry,” sounds so trite. “Thoughts and prayers,” sounds tired and overused. 

Life is precious when you are looking into the face of sudden death. 

That’s all I know to say.

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.