Flattened!: A New Yorker's experience with the COVID-19 virus

In a way, Pat Irwin reminds me of my youngest son, Vincent. Music is in their souls and each fosters a life dedicated to music.

This realization about Vincent hit home in the summer of 2007 as we travelled the country visiting colleges. As we toured, he’d move his fingers as if he was playing the piano and finally on one campus as we passed a practice studio he exclaimed, “Dad, I just have to play this piano.”

And so he did. Music, even at 17 years of age, was deeply embedded in his soul.

Pat is a contemporary of mine, a classmate all those many years ago at Grinnell College. An American studies major, he then studied music in Paris, France, thanks to a Thomas Watson Fellowship.

He’s been making music ever since, including a stint with the popular rock group The B-52’s. He is a composer and teaches music at New York University and Brooklyn College. Music, too, fills his soul.

Recently, he spent a period of time without music. “I just couldn’t touch a guitar or piano,” he says. When he could, the first thing he did was play a record: Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman.” “Laurie and I are friends,” he says.

“Playing that record was so life affirming.”

How, playing a record can be so life affirming is part of Pat’s journey over the past month as he’s navigated the new COVID-19 world in New York City.

Pat and his wife, Terri Gloyd, live in Long Island City in Queens, N.Y. Terri is a partner in a coffee shop, LIC Corner Cafe, just around the corner from their apartment.

When the pandemic struck, Pat says he and Terri “were sort of cavalier about washing our hands and keeping surfaces clean at home.

Pat loves living in Queens. He says, “It’s a special place, a diverse place that is dear to my heart. It’s a crowded environment. I love it, but it was risky.”

Pat travelled to Brooklyn College on the train going through turn styles, pressing elevator doors and then going to classes. He had plenty of opportunities to encounter the virus. New York University had shut down earlier.

Pat says the pandemic “became an issue” when Terri had to shut down her cafe. “We thought: We’ve got to take this thing seriously.”

Their son, Sam, an artist who lives in Philadelphia returned home to check on his parents.

In that apartment, Pat and Terri made the decision to remove themselves from Queens and shelter in place at their second home on Shelter Island, at the eastern tip of Long Island. It’s a three-hour ride. Sam stayed at the apartment.

They’ve owned this home on Shelter Island for 20-some years and they’ve worked hard to develop friendships with the locals.

“This is a modest, conservative place,” Pat continues, “but there is definitely a line between people who are here year around and those who aren’t. Sadly, the people who are here year around don’t have an easy go of it. Fishing is no longer what it was. They depend on the people who come for the summer.”

A sign greets visitors coming off the ferry telling new arrivals to quarantine themselves for 14 days.

Shelter Island is where Pat got “flattened,” to use his words.

Shortly after arriving, Pat began feeling “overwhelmingly achy.” He continues, “My sinuses were clogged, I just couldn’t breathe. I thought it could be allergies, but I don’t really come down with allergies.”

He called the emergency room at Stony Brook Hospital on Long Island, twice. Pat shared his age and symptoms.

“They were overwhelmed,” he notes. “They told me to stay away, stay isolated, drink hot tea, and if it gets worse, to let them know.”

His symptoms did get worse, but he didn’t have a fever and wasn’t short of breath.

He called the emergency room again. They told him to “stay low.” He could come, but they would probably turn him away. He didn’t have a fever. . .yet.

Advertisement Advertisement

And then, Pat got flattened.

He started to cough and then he got short of breath.

“It got rough,” he says. “I couldn’t move. I was under covers with a hot water bottle. It took four to five days to climb out of that and feel like I was taking a turn. . .that I would be okay.”

When Pat and Terri made their way to Shelter Island, they had plenty of everything, except for a thermometer. There wasn’t one to be had on the island.

It took a week for the local pharmacy to have any in inventory.

Pat did begin feeling better, but then learned another lesson.

He needed to make revisions on a big music project. It was three hours to his workshop, three to four hours working on the project and then another three hours back to Shelter Island.

“This was a bittersweet drive,” he says wistfully, “...all the ambulances on the expressways, it was just so sad.”

As he pulled into Queens, he drove past Elmhurst Hospital. Ambulances were lined up around the corner.

Patients overwhelmed hospital staff there, as well.

At 10 p.m., he arrived back on the island and then it happened.

“I got hit again,” Pat recalls, “not as bad as the first time, but I was short of breath.”

And he advises, “It’s not worth it to push it hard.”

Terri fared better. “She didn’t get hit as hard as I did,” he notes.

Pat has a couple of observations from his vantage point.

He’s seen how the pandemic “has hit minority communities and people of color. It’s enough to make you scream. It’s unfair. We can isolate, but there are so many that aren’t so lucky.”

He also emphasizes that COVID-19 “isn’t to be fooled with. This thing with social distancing is so crucial.”

That’s coming from a guy who was flattened.

When you look at the COVID-19 statistics from New York and across the nation, neither Pat Irwin nor Terri Gloyd, are included. Neither was tested. Neither had the opportunity to be tested. Pat received his diagnosis over the phone. Regardless, each has been impacted by this pandemic.

Their plans now are to recover and find shelter on Shelter Island until mid-May.

Publisher’s note: Here is a short biography on Pat Irwin’s musical projects. In addition to playing with The B-52s, he was also a member of the Raybeats and 8-Eyed Spy. He has composed music for films including My New Gun, But I’m A Cheerleader, and Bam Bam and Celeste and cartoons including Rocko’s Modern Life, Pepper Ann, A Little Curious, and Class of 3000, as well as scores for HBO, Showtime and Netflix. His websites are patirwinmusic.com and sussband.com.

by P. Carter Newton

publisher

cnewton@galgazette.com