I am older now and things have changed. I noticed that on the back deck of our home a couple of evenings ago. It was nice and warm, and the sun was dipping below the tree line. 

Not a cloud in the sky. I had a Jameson Whiskey (note the spelling) on the go. Everything should have been wonderful and right with the world because we are back to normal, aren’t we?

Do I feel safe? 

Somewhere in my soul though was the gnawing feeling that everything was not quite right. We have been through much during the past couple of years with COVID and we want things to be the same as before all this started, but I know that saying it does not make it so. 

Two people who are close to me have tested positive for COVID in the last week alone. I myself now have had no less than four vaccinations. Do I feel safe? No, I do not.

Given my advanced years I must be careful and I surely am. Now I know that things are opening again, but I also know that in the decision to go back to normal there are political and economic considerations. There are those considerations in everything in the universe. 

What have I learned in the past couple of years? Well for one thing COVID and the crisis has changed my life fundamentally. For instance, social contact has changed. There are people I have not seen in years, and they have not seen me.

Altered time-line?

There has been a time warp. The normal processes of a life lived have been altered. My contact with other people has absolutely changed. I go to shops and restaurants much less. The floor of my car might provide a clue. There are old take-out boxes and wrappers. Subway, Mickey Dees, The Colonel and all the rest.  

I ran into someone I know well the other day. It was on the street walking.  I had my mask on and my friend had hers on. We did lower the masks to speak. We did still recognize each other.

Do you know what struck me? She had aged. She was older than I remember her. Well of course she was!!!!! By a couple of years. Then came the realization that I guess that I have aged as well. 

My friend sees me as older than I was. I hope she was not too disappointed. Unfortunately, not being out in society is not a free pass for anyone against aging. 

There’s a phrase from the far east that appears appropriate; “The dogs bark and the caravans roll on.” 

NTV’s Jim Furlong can be reached by emailing: jfurlong@ntv.ca

The subject is COVID. There had been a promise to myself to not write about it anymore because people had heard enough from me on most aspects of it. A visit to a local restaurant showed me “everything ain’t been said.”

I cannot tell you about government policy. I can only tell you about me and my personal experiences. Last Tuesday I was in a downtown eatery with a friend of mine. It is the first time I have dined out in two years. I am careful in things like that because I am 75.  If you get a flu when you are that old, it can be fatal. COVID absolutely is not the place to be. 

Easing of restrictions

I do not need to name the restaurant because what they did was not illegal. They were just trying to get by. Now I had forgotten my KN95 mask so as soon as I entered, I asked the greeter if they had a spare mask.

The nice woman said I did not need one. She was rejoicing in the easing of restrictions. She did not know I was looking for a mask because I wanted one not because of the law.  I was escorted to my table and sat with a maskless  friend.

We were distanced from the only two other occupied tables. The lady who escorted us to our table was maskless. The waitress who took and delivered our order was also maskless. I said nothing. 

An early life lesson I learned from working as a waiter in the diner on the Newfie Bullet is that it isn’t prudent to start arguments with those that handle your food. Important information. 

Maskless patrons

Now a quick look at the bar apart from the restaurant that day showed to be five or six people sitting there for a drink or trying their luck at the VLTs. They were all maskless. As a matter of fact, in this restaurant/bar there were NO masks.  

Now I did not come into town on a load of turnips. I understand that in the decision to reopen everything under the sun there is politics involved plus an economic imperative that is quite compelling. 

Everybody cannot just stay home out of it. Money must exchange hands. People must work. So it is that doors swing wide, and toes start tapping again in the restaurant and bar business. Do not mistake that for the COVID crisis being over with. It is not. We are just forced to pretend it is. The number of deaths is up. The number of hospitalizations is up.  

What do I do? There is only one course of action for a seventy-five-year-old. That is prudence. Wear your mask and do not go to maskless places. It is my plan. Good luck with yours. 

NTV’s Jim Furlong can be reached by emailing: jfurlong@ntv.ca

What is my question to the members of the so-called “Freedom Convoy” that held Ottawa and some other places hostage recently. 

You said you were a trucker convoy, but you became something else and that was a very dark entity. It started honestly enough when a group wanted government to end restrictions imposed in the middle of the COVID epidemic. That is fair.

The right of people to petition government on various matters is CENTRAL to our democracy. It started out as a group representing truckers, but most major trucking organizations were not part of it. As so often happens in protests the idea morphed into something else. That happens a lot.

A ticket to govern?

In the end the group was overtaken by a radical fringe. One faction wanted the government to resign and have the group from the convoy run the country. Like that was going to happen. The expertise the group had was blowing horns and blocking streets. That isn’t much of a calling card or a ticket to govern.

What the group did ultimately was to alienate people. The uprising lost support almost from day one. Nobody ever won over a population to a way of thinking by blowing horns and keeping people up all night or by blocking streets and disrupting the way of life of those people. That’s not how successful revolutions work. 

The Ottawa protest in particular had no “command and control” and that “command and control” is a virtue in any uprising, getting people on the same page. Instead, some people were out of control as in elements that went urinating on the grave of Canada’s Unknown Soldier; someone else flew a Nazi flag; and another group wanted free food from one of Ottawa’s homeless shelters.

The Smell of Trump

Now to me one of the most disturbing images was that of a Donald Trump supporter on horseback waving a flag. That was disturbing because in the end this wasn’t a protest of truckers. It was a group of people that believed government to be the root of all their troubles.  It was a group that included right-wing extremists and in the air was the unmistakable smell of Donald Trump and that which he stands for.

I think the protesters by and large were manipulated. They were a destabilizing force funded in part at least from afar. 

The good news is that Canada is a great nation. It was discovered early on that this wasn’t a trucker’s protest, it was something else. Their high-water mark was getting coffee and sandwiches for their group. They will go home now and will not have learned anything. Meanwhile we ordinary law-abiding citizens did. We who know that there’s more to defeating a pandemic that blowing your horn all night will carry on. 

I expect it’s like that for a lot of us. Surely to God there must be more to life than waiting around for the afternoon COVID numbers to come out and to hear the list of people lined up from one interest group or another to complain.

I know where I am on the issue. Get vaccinated, follow the science, and shut the hell up. Nice words from me, but it’s not much of a life to be living these days. 

There’s not a lot to it. My life has been reduced to an occasional but rare trip to the market at eight in the morning and a once-a-week Sunday dinner with my immediate family. There were no Christmas visitors this year either except for that same small family group.

‘Oh me Nerves’

Now these days in the morning I go out to the mailbox and get the paper, which is thinner than it used to be. I have a coffee and sit in the window and read as I look out over the forest which hasn’t changed since yesterday.

Even my wife, who I dearly love, is starting to get under my skin. Not in that “oh me nerves” bull crap you see on those hideous Newfoundland aprons you get on your way up to Cambridge, Ontario and points west.

My angst springs from the sound of a spoon on a cup of tea that wife stirs perhaps a couple of hundred times. I know in my heart she does it to annoy me, but I can’t prove it. It’s like the sound of dumping ice cubes loudly from the tray in the freezer into a container just as I’m taking a nap in the living room. IT IS A PLOT!!!

The Tedium of Life

Sometime to relive the tedium of life I’ll make a very early morning run to a discount store. Dressed in a special mask that looks like it might have been part of some HAZMAT suit I’ll buy more soup noodles or spaghetti sauce or discounted chocolate Santas left over from the Christmas trade. 

Even the store patrons in the early morning get on my nerves because they are generally older like me and have time on their hands and are looking to chat.

Myself, having been essentially isolated for a couple of years, am still not driven to small talk with strangers. I am just getting a break from home. 

I’ll go home now and get a break from here. 

NTV’s Jim Furlong can be reached by emailing: jfurlong@ntv.ca

Placentia, a town nestled in the rolling hills and curving coastline of the NL coast, is home to an abundance of archaeological sites, museums, and national historic sites. Castle Hill National Historic site is a link to British and French colonial heritage from the 17th and 18th centuries. 

One of Placentia’s key architectural landmarks stands in Town Square, the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, but culture and heritage isn’t only shown through historic sites. Often portrayed through music, Placentia has no shortage of musical talent. Singer-songwriter Damian Follett and Larry Foley of The Punters are two great talents hailing from the serene coastal town, but they’re certainly not the only ones. 

As a child, Angie Coffey performed on stage with a solo spot in school concerts, community concerts and was a member of the church youth choir. Angie Coffey is proud to be from the town of Placentia, she carries a strong bond with her roots and followed her dreams with a little help from the local support. In 2000, she began playing in cover bands around town and the surrounding areas, performing country, rock and traditional music. 

“I had many great supporters throughout my music journey, but two stand out – one being my music teacher in school, Yvonne Milley,” Coffey shared with The Newfoundland Herald. 

“My biggest supporter was my grandmother, Jean Green. She was a musician herself, she had a beautiful voice and was an incredible performer. She gave me my passion for music, and to say she was proud would be an understatement.” 

Dream Come True

Coffey grew up with musical influences like Dolly Parton, Patty Loveless and Kenny Rogers, so it comes as no surprise that she has a passion for country music. She began writing her own original music a decade ago, songs reflecting the personal issues she was navigating.

“My original songs always came from a deep place about what I was feeling or going through. 10 years ago I had written about eight songs when I was going through some personal things and felt it was the only way I could express it, but never shared them because they were too personal to me,” Coffey explained.

“I put them away and never listened to them again until 2020. When I let my manager, John Saunders, hear them, he thought they were great and encouraged me to let the world hear. He helped me find the confidence in myself and my songs that I never had.” 

In fall of 2020 her original song True Love, which was recently featured on Eastlink TV’s Discover NL, was released through Front Porch Entertainment. The track involved Grammy Award winning engineer Robert Hadley, who has technical credits with artists like Ray Charles, Tim McGraw, and Fleetwood Mac. 

“It really was a dream come true for someone like to me, to have one of my own songs now out there in the world, it is really a wonderful thing.” 

Going Live

March 2020, a time we’ll never forget, when lockdowns and restrictions began flooding across Canada as a result of the pandemic. Musicians and performers across the province took a massive hit, with shows and concerts being put on hold. Many used their creative abilities to get by. Coffey took it to social media. 

With access to millions of people, social media can be used efficiently as a platform to market yourself, and in Coffey’s case, original music. In the summer of 2020, she began performing live via Facebook every Saturday night, acquiring a large following.

“It was simply amazing, the fan base that started to follow me and have been supporting me ever since. The last year of performing online has been the best experience of my music career, really,” she shared. “I would’ve never had the opportunities I got this last year without doing the live Facebook performances. I am finally now doing all the things I have dreamt of doing with my music.”

Coffey has already begun a list of accomplishments, including a recent performance at the international music showcase Live At Heart, performing an Arts and Culture Centre tour as part of the Due South Opry, and a new single set to be released this fall. 

“I want to keep pushing myself to let my music out, and I hope to perform more and more as the years go by. I think it’s the passion that Newfoundlanders have for music, it’s everywhere here, every corner you turn. It’s the people and the music that gives our province such life and as a musician, it just pulls you in and you can’t let go.”

For more visit Angie Coffey Music on Facebook or watch live performances via Front Porch Entertainment on YouTube. 

The clinic was for seniors, like me, over 70. I lined up in the bitter cold outside Waterford Valley High School for over an hour. It was no fun, and the lineup was outside. Why outside? I still don’t know.

Now before you feel much sympathy for me, I am in good health. That wasn’t true for everyone. There were several senior people in walkers and a good few more with canes and, if you think everyone arrived by car, you are dreaming. Not everyone has a car. That line of senior citizens seeking vaccination went halfway round the building. I did get my vaccination. 

‘Anti-Vaxers’

Fast forward two days. Same building; same plan of battle. People trying to get vaccinated. The difference is that on January 8th there was a protest staged by a handful of “anti-vaxers.” Their activity shut down the clinic for the day.  Mercifully government is going to pass legislation that will ensure public access to buildings engaged in health care, but that is months away. Appointments for January 8th were moved forward 24-hours. 

Here is where rage set in with me. Forget about the vagaries of “the right to protest.” The image in my mind is of an old woman in a walker with a scarf up over her face waiting in the cold and trying to get a booster shot. 

If I had been lined up on protest day there would have been words and a question to the protesters:

Turnabout is Fair Play

“Who the hell are you that you think you have a right to disrupt a clinic in the middle of a deadly epidemic?”

Now turnabout is fair play, so here are a few questions for our readers and I suspect you are going to get them all right. 

First. How many of those protesters were doctors? Secondly, how many of the protesters were nurses? Thirdly, how many of them worked ANYWHERE in the health care system or knew ANYTHING about medicine save for something that fell off the Internet and hit them in the head. 

I suspect you got one hundred percent in the test.  

Others Rights

Those protesters are somewhere tonight. I really do feel badly for them. In a world already complex and where the challenges are real they are in a bad position because they don’t have a clue. 

To not understand what they did was wrong and why society will have to deal with them is somehow sad.

They understand something about rights, but not about the rights of others. Too bad. I hope the old woman who didn’t get her shot that day is safe.  

I’ve always been the kind of person to keep going through any illness – until officially told I’m sick, that is. I’ll go like the dickens until I’m derailed by an actual diagnosis, and then, look out! I turn into a big ol’ sooky baby in seconds. 

I stop going, I stop eating and I start sleeping. In fact, once I’m officially diagnosed, I’m lucky I can get out of bed at all. Give me permission to be miserable, and I’ll milk it for all it’s worth.  

Nothing Going On

Catching COVID was no different, though it did take awhile for the facts to sink in. I had actually been feeling poorly and been enjoying miserable health for over six weeks and had been on antibiotics and over the counter meds for a sinus infection that simply wouldn’t go away. 

Having had many in my lifetime, no pesky drippy nasal cavity could slow me down, and, with the mandatory one or more symptom COVID tests confirming it wasn’t ‘da vid,’ I just kept going full tilt through Christmas. 

The Monday after New Year’s, I crawled out of bed, made a kitchen appearance, then crawled right back in the bunk. Thankfully, I had nothing going on that week and, besides interacting with the same few people day-in-and-day-out, I went no where and did nothing. 

After the holiday exhaustion, I figured, or a possible return of that troublesome sinus infection. I’d just suffer through it, I told myself. 

The end of that week was shaping up to be busy with back-to-back errands and appointments. I prepared to just shake it off and hit giv ‘er. A friend suggested I take a rapid test and see ‘just in case.’ I told my friend I’d likely test myself later that afternoon, though I was sure it was a waste of time. A case of the COVID-possibly-positive guilts saw me sticking the long-as-me-arm swab up to my brain first thing after all. Within second, the ‘C’ line turned blue. 

I had COVID. The day was derailed and I had a few calls to make. I went home and went to bed out of it. A PCR test confirmed the diagnosis a day later, and, luckily, the few unlucky candidates with whom I had interacted with over the week prior to my diagnosis tested negative, though full disclosure; as of press time, one contact tested positive on a rapid test five days after a negative PCR. It’s been quite the COVID circus. 

Rules change almost daily. From who gets tested (no symptom folks who have had contact with a known positive, yes. If you have symptoms, assume you have it and isolate) to what to do if you test positive on a rapid test (no PCR required as of now and, from what I was told, you only contact contacts after a positive PCR.) 

Like a Champ

Isolation requirements have changed, too, so have some guidelines; like start counting from first symptom onset if you have any, or from first case contact if you don’t. And, since testing is now limited, while this province’s COVID positive numbers still climb, the actual virus-positive numbers are much, much higher. 

What hasn’t changed, however, is our attitude towards others. My poor daughter had been part of her school’s “suspected” group and had to endure three stick-up-the-nostril tests in a row and had to have a locked-down holiday. 

Telling her she had to have yet another test and endure another lockdown days after having her freedom was painful. She took the news like a champ. 

The one friend she had interacted with was a darling, as was the mom, and my partner couldn’t have been more of a hero had he worn a cape. 

As for how I’m feeling? Horrid, thanks for asking. I’m exhausted. Breathing takes real effort. My head is constantly full. I don’t care if I ever eat again and I’d rather piss the bed than get up to go to the bathroom. But, I’m assured this won’t last forever, so until I gets rid of da vid, I’ll just lay back and enjoy my poor health to the fullest.

ewfoundland’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, warned that, at some point, COVID-19 would eventually impact all of our lives. Over the holidays, NL’s Minister of Health, Dr. John Haggie, had fought the good fight, as had MP and Cabinet Minister Seamus O’Regan. 

A Determined Virus

COVID doesn’t care beyond the fact that it can and will affect anyone it comes in contact with. NTV’s Jesse Stirling was struck early, and struck hard, as we learned in part one and two of this three part series. Many know Stirling as the face of NTV’s Meetings with Remarkable People. Grandson to the late, great Geoff Stirling, Stirling’s is yet another strong voice in a long-standing legacy of broadcasting royalty. But status and fame doesn’t protect one from a virus as determined as COVID.  

It was Not to be

Married to the love of his life, Amanda, and father to daughter Olivia, Stirling had the world at his fingertips. As he shared exclusively with The Herald, Stirling has had some medical challenges. He survived a near life threatening heart attack, for one thing, and now, a brush with COVID. Stirling’s encounter with COVID began last August. With plans to head to Newfoundland, and with many interviews planned and booked for his popular inspirational series, Meetings With Remarkable People, Stirling was ready and raring to go. It was not to be. 

Stirling’s COVID battle even involved an interesting vision, or encounter, while at his worst. With little food for over a week, and struggling to get enough oxygen into his body, Stirling “passed out” in the bathtub in his home. 

He had a Vision

“Sometime around day 17, where I just couldn’t take any more, I believe I even cried out to my wife that I need to be taken to the hospital. I knew something was going seriously wrong. At that point, my lungs were under attack. Every breath was an effort and I made it into the bath as that was the only thing that gave me relief from the fever and the cold shivers,” he shared.

It was there he had a vision. “It was this star being and I’m in outer space. It’s like a galaxy-looking place with stars and all that, and the angels are descending some kind of star-lit staircase or star staircase. And they were bringing me to wherever they were going to bring me.” 

There was no feeling of fear. No sense of being threatening. There was only peace. “It looked like I was going to a good place. But I started freaking out and within this vision of my mind’s eye, I’m saying, ‘I can’t go. It’s not my time yet. I have a little girl.’ And so it was the face of my little girl, Olivia, that really made me fight very hard to come back into my body.”

Stirling shared that he wished this story ended with a “happily ever after” but it wasn’t the case. “I wish I could say I immediately felt better and I was great. But it was like bottoming out. I essentially feel like I died for a few minutes on that day, and then I slowly started turning the corner and recovering after that,” he said.

Stirling shared his family worried about his long-term health. 

In fact, Stirling offered that it was his mother, Judy Stirling, to whom he credits with saving his life.

‘I think that saved me’

“She probably saved my life because she was the one saying, ‘you need to start taking IVs’ because I was sweating so much and I was like 20 pounds lighter than I am right now. I did not look good. I was a skeleton and I had nothing left. So she said, ‘please start getting IVs.’ And I did and I think that saved me.”

Stirling was tested “clear” on August 21st, but the battle wasn’t finished. 

“I’m officially now over it, but I’m weakened. The battle with the virus has turned the corner with a negative test, but people still are a little bit afraid that they could die by shaking my hand.”

Stirling says he understands the fear, as he himself was impacted by what’s been called “long COVID.” “I didn’t even know long haul COVID or long COVID was a thing. Had no idea. I had the Delta variant and essentially you still have swelling of the brain afterwards. I think it was August 1st that I had my positive COVID test, so we’re talking August, and all September. It’s now October, and I’m still not feeling great,” he shared. 

There’s no longer flu like symptoms, but he’s not himself at all. 

“I’m just really weak, really down in energy, still a little bit of shortness of breath too. My smell was totally messed up. I used to love the smell of bacon and I could not stand the smell of bacon anymore. Couldn’t smell my coffee. So some neurological, long term stuff was happening with me,” he shared.

More medical visits, and Stirling was told these are things he may have to “live with” for a while. 

“There’s no cure. It’s just time, rest, leading a healthy lifestyle and now everything is trending in the right direction.” Stirling says he’s back “in the game” and thrilled to have finally turned the corner.  

‘I have a goal’

“There’s a whole new season of Meetings with Remarkable People for 2022 in what will be my 20th year, so what an honour. I tried to count them up, all the shows I’ve done over the 20 years, but it’s definitely more than 350. That’s a conservative estimate, and I’m so honoured to have had (Pam Pardy) on the show talking about The Herald.” 

Any top interview subjects, we ask. Mary Walsh, is up there, he admitted.  

“I have a goal to interview all the Newfoundlanders who have been on 22 Minutes and I only have Rick Mercer – who very graciously wanted to do the show but the timing just didn’t work out this time around so I’m going to get him in April – left. Mary Walsh, who I finally had on the show this time around, was another one I had been trying to get, so it was a real honour to finally sit down with her and The Herald helped with that, so thank you.” 

Sitting in The Herald office to chat leading up to the holidays, Stirling shared he felt “right at home.” 

“The Herald, to me, is the premier, number one, most beloved Newfoundland brand. It’s a brand that goes back to 1946 that represents truth and justice and in a practical sense, a little something for everybody. So whether it’s ghost stories or crime stories or celebrity gossip, cartoons, comics or TV listings, there really is something for everyone in this magazine,” he said with pride.

Beloved by Readers

And the longevity of the brand is something he’s proud of, he continued. 

“We were talking about the amount of time The Herald spends in people’s homes. The amount of people that read each issue. How people proactively go out and buy it like a grocery store item. It’s up there with milk, bread, eggs. And my copy of The Herald.”

It stands for so much, he continued.  

“It is a beloved Newfoundland brand and it stands for truth. I think it stand for integrity of reporting and to have a smaller, private, family run enterprise is so unique in today’s media landscape. It’s a real blessing to still have this magazine and have it be so beloved by our readers.”

Stirling offered that The Herald holds a special place in his heart. “I wouldn’t have had this conversation with anyone else. I’ll say that sincerely. And Newfoundlanders have been amazingly supportive to me my whole life, and I was actually reflecting on this the other night. The only successes I’ve ever really had in life outside of marriage and a daughter, all my professional successes have come from Newfoundland and it’s from the support of Newfoundlanders, so I owe this province everything,” he said with passion. 

Stirling hopes that by sharing his story, he gives others hope in these difficult pandemic times. “I hope that my angelic vision can inspire someone. The fact that I’m here today can inspire someone. The fact that I kicked COVID and fought long and hard, and now I’m back, can inspire someone.”

What’s next for Stirling? Let’s hope there’s no more dramatic tales to share, he said with a smile. “Let’s really hope that I’m not coming back next year with another near-death experience. I think a heart attack followed by a long COVID battle, that’s enough drama,” he laughed. 

All Stirling wants is to live a good life, he added in reflection. 

“For now, I’d just like to be a son and a husband and a dad and do whatever I can around the edges to help this Stirling enterprise of media companies go charge forward into the future.” 

That most people will eventually get COVID-19 was one of the messages the province’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, laid out the day the province of NL moved to a modified Alert Level 4. 

No-skip Covid-19

That’s certainly proven to be the case as many high-profile names announced they had COVID over the holidays. From NL’s Minister of Health, Dr. John Haggie, to Federal MP and Cabinet Minister Seamus O’Regan, to some notable names in the entertainment industry like comedian Lisa Baker and Come From Away star, Broadway’s Petrina Bromley, COVID didn’t skip over anyone, it seemed. 

Road less Travelled 

NTV’s Jesse Stirling was struck early, and struck hard, as we learned in part one. Many know Stirling as the face of NTV’s Meetings with Remarkable People. Grandson to the late, great Geoff Stirling, and son of the vivacious Judy Stirling and Newfoundland Broadcasting President Scott Stirling, the young-gun in a long-standing legacy of broadcasting royalty seemed to have had the world at his fingertips. Married to the love of his life, Amanda, and father to precious daughter Olivia, Stirling would seem to have a life many could only dream of. But, as he’s shared exclusively with The Herald, Stirling has had an interesting road of late. 

Read it Here First 

The previous time The Herald sat down to chat with Stirling, it was about surviving a near life threatening heart attack. Stirling has long been candid with the magazine his grandfather started, so it comes as little surprise that Stirling would want to share his latest brush with illness with Herald readers first.

Stirling’s encounter with COVID began last August. With plans to head to Newfoundland, and with many interviews planned and booked for his popular inspirational series, Meetings With Remarkable People, Stirling was ready and raring to go. So much for best-laid plans, it seems. Stirling shared he felt as if he had “a really bad flu.” Night sweats. Cold shivers. A high temp. Days before he was supposed to get on a flight bound for Newfoundland, the test came back: Stirling was positive for COVID-19. 

The first couple days, he shared, were not that bad. But then the illness took hold. When his oxygen level dipped to the point it was dangerous, he knew he was in for yet another fight of his life. 

When Stirling made the announcement on social media, he was still optimistic. “In my mind, the whole time up to this point, I’m still thinking I can save this trip. I can still tape my shows. I’ve got all these great reservations made at all these fantastic restaurants. I don’t want to give anything up at this point. But then, when my oxygen dipped, my doctor really started freaking out.”

Stirling shared it took a month of “really great medical and self care” to get to the point he could walk the dogs around the block. Because Stirling was struck with COVID fairly early in the pandemic, there was backlash. “You wouldn’t be embarrassed to admit online if you had diabetes or if you had high blood pressure or pneumonia, but there’s so much political charge and social stigma behind Coronavirus that I had my own struggles with the news,” he admitted. 

The Delta variant was shown to particularly be hard on middle aged men, he continued. When you add the pressure from those online, then the road was not smooth. Most, Stirling offered, were kind. “‘Sorry, you got sick. Hope you get better.’ When you’re really sick, there’s nothing else you want to hear. Those messages were great.”

They ‘crushed it’

Others challenged the fact that he was vaccinated (he was) while others claimed he couldn’t have the virus because he was vaccinated. 

“People said I was a liar. ‘You can’t get Coronavirus if you’ve been vaccinated’ or ‘you should have beaten it by now, you’re not doing it right.’ Some started to question which medicines are right for this kind of thing. A real blaming the victim began. And then some questioned how I caught it in the first place. ‘Oh, you were traveling,’ I heard. It’s almost like I deserved it since I was out doing business and living my life.” 

Stirling’s wife and daughter both caught the virus, he added, but both “crushed it” he said, and had mild symptoms. “I felt horrible about that, but my wife was under the weather for three days and didn’t miss a minute of work and my little girl had one night of a fever and then totally bounced back the next day.”

Still wanting to be cautious, the family remained under self-imposed lock-down to make sure. It was tough, he shared. Olivia didn’t feel sick, so keeping her out of her beloved daycare was tough on the family, for one thing. Plus, Stirling offered, he really was no help at home. 

“I give immense credit to my wife for keeping the whole family going because literally getting out of bed and going to the tub was a Herculean task for me.” 

Stirling was so ill, he even experienced what he called an “incredible encounter with angels.”

“That’s the craziest part of it. And I know people might think this is a little out there or doubt that it happened, but this really did happen to me,” he opened. 

‘It’s not my time yet’

He wasn’t getting better, he continued, so he was receiving prayers and support from those he knew. “When you haven’t eaten for 10, 11, 12 days, that presents a host of problems on its own. Sometime around day 17, where I just couldn’t take any more, I believe I even cried out to my wife that I needed to be taken to the hospital. I knew something was going seriously wrong. At that point, my lungs were under attack. Every breath was an effort and I made it into the bath as that was the only thing that gave me relief from the fever and the cold shivers.”

Stirling shared he “passed out” in the tub for about five hours. “I was just in there and while I was in this passed out condition, I had a vision of what appeared to me to be angelic. It was this star being and I’m in outer space. It’s like a galaxy-looking place with stars and all that, and the angels are descending some kind of star-lit staircase or star staircase. And they were bringing me to wherever they were going to bring me.” 

There was no feeling of fear. No sense of being threatening. There was only peace. “It looked like I was going to a good place. But I started freaking out and within this vision of my mind’s eye, I’m saying, ‘I can’t go. It’s not my time yet. I have a little girl.’ And so it was the face of my little girl, Olivia, that really made me fight very hard to come back into my body.”

Stirling shared that he wished this story ended with a “happily ever after” but it wasn’t the case. “I wish I could say I immediately felt better and I was great. But it was like bottoming out. I essentially feel like I died for a few minutes on that day, and then I slowly started turning the corner and recovering after that,” he said.

Stirling admitted his family worried about his long-term health. In fact, Stirling shared his mother, Judy Stirling, probably saved his life.

On Friday, January 21st in part 3, find out how his mother saved his life, plus, Stirling’s battle with Long-Term COVID and how his commitment to the empire his grandfather created, inspired him 

Many know Jesse Stirling as the face of NTV’s Meetings With Remarkable People.  Grandson to the late, great Geoff Stirling, and son of the vivacious Judy Stirling and highly respected Newfoundland Broadcasting President Scott Stirling, this young-gun from a long-standing legacy of broadcasting royalty  seems to have it made. 

Married to the love of his life, Amanda, and father to precious daughter Olivia, Stirling would seem to have a life many could only dream of. But Stirling has had an interesting road of late. The last time The Herald sat down to chat with Stirling, it was about surviving a near life threatening heart attack. 

Stirling has long been candid with the magazine his grandfather started, so it came as little surprise that he would want to share his latest brush with illness with Herald readers first.

Wiser words were perhaps never spoken when Stirling began the chat with, “It seems to be the year where it’s very hard to make plans and things can get wiped out in an instant.” 

The Best-laid Plans

Stirling’s encounter with COVID began last August. With plans to head to Newfoundland for the warmest months of the year, and with many interviews planned and booked for his popular inspirational series, Meetings With Remarkable People, Stirling was ready and eager to go. So much for best-laid plans, it seems. 

“I started feeling like I had a really bad flu. And we’ve all had a flu, so it wasn’t that scary. I just thought, ‘OK, I’m not feeling the best.’ And then my temperature went up and I had really bad night sweats and cold shivers. And my wife actually said, ‘you should get a COVID test,’ but I was basically in denial about it,” he said.

Stirling was dedicated to hand washing, he added, and out-and-about in California, he wore a mask. He’s also vaccinated. “This doesn’t happen, right? Not when you’ve done everything you were told to do. But sure enough, the test came back and I was positive. And this was the beginning of August.” 

Anguish-Filled

This was days before getting on a flight bound for Newfoundland. 

Stirling became quite ill, he added honestly. “What I found incredible was how anguish-filled, and what a painful experience this was physically and in my mind too. Coronavirus only attacked people who were severely ill or very elderly and I just turned 50, and I am a pretty fit guy. I just thought this doesn’t happen to me. Not now.” But, he added, it did. In the beginning, at least, he wasn’t very ill. But that changed. “The first couple days, it was not that scary. ‘We’ve all had it flu. I can get through this,’ I thought.’ It was when I just wasn’t getting better and it kept getting worse and worse and worse that I got scared,” he shared. 

Cold shivers, goosebumps, night sweats, high fever, stomach flu. Stirling experienced it all. 

“I actually broke a laptop computer projectile vomiting over it. I’m trying to work through this whole thing. And I believe it was at that point I made an actual announcement on social media. Like, in my mind, the whole time, I’m still thinking I can save this trip. I can still tape my shows. I’ve got all these great reservations made at all these fantastic Newfoundland restaurants. I don’t want to give it up at this point. But I need to make an announcement. I know I have to give in when my oxygen level dipped to the point it was dangerous.”

On Wednesday, January 19th in part 2, find out about Stirling’s long  road to recovery and about the log-term impact of ‘Long COVID.’