My parents--who do not live with us--are staying with us for Thanksgiving. They are, in fact, staying with us right now.

Why? Because for 1.5 week of every 3 weeks, my parents travel for my mom's cancer treatments. They stay with us while she's receiving treatment.

We are well aware of the risks. My mom spends 10 days out of every 21 in and out of doctors' offices and the hospital, going to appointments or receiving treatment.

She has no choice about it. It's this, or she dies.

While she's here, we wear masks. We social distance. Every window in the house is open with fans going.

My parents will be having Thanksgiving dinner "with" us...from a completely separate part of the house. We cannot and will not eat in the room together.

This isn't a fun, happy, celebratory time for us. It's scary. We worry about even our limited exposure resulting in us making my parents sick. We worry about their more frequent exposure resulting in them making us sick.

I would love for my parents to be safely tucked away at home right now. I would love for my family to be safely tucked away alone in our house right now.

That's not possible.

And all of y'all running around like Typhoid Mary this holiday season puts us even more at risk.

Not everyone has the benefit of staying home and being safe, whether due to work or medical treatment or other factors.

If you're voluntarily leaving your house to go have a turkey feast with your family this week, you're putting the people who have no choice at risk.

Please stay home if you can. Please wear a mask and social distance if you can't.

Please, please, please stop putting everyone else at risk because YOUR PLEASURE matters more than other people's lives.