First COVID took his friends, then it took his health

Eddie Kemm found the pool table early in the pandemic, not long after the governor’s order shut down the bars — including Kemm’s favorite pool hall. When the halls went dark, so, too, did a significant part of the social life of an 81-year-old man who lives alone. It was like an amputation. He was, he says, miserable.

In ordinary circumstances, Kemm would not have made a purchase impractical for a man living on $1,200 a month. But then the stimulus check arrived and, even if it hadn’t, the difference between luxury and necessity lies in the eye of the beholder during the long, isolated days of the pandemic.

What he knew after just a couple weeks away from his social circle, unable to play the game he practiced in his mind while lying in bed, was that he was “going crazy.”