Laughter is good medicine

Karl Holub says his friend Penn saved him from going crazy during a two-week quarantine.

When Karl Holub discovered he tested positive for Covid-19, he was disappointed and surprised. He had been feeling sick but didn’t have a fever or cough. Wife Molly and their children tested negative. Karl, a property manager, quarantined solo in an empty apartment. He shared updates with his Facebook friends with information about the virus and positive quotes about gratitude. After more than a week quarantined alone, Karl was starting to feel stir crazy. So he took a cue from Tom Hanks in Cast Away and made a friend: a tennis ball he named Penn. He updated his profile picture to a photo of Penn the tennis ball/friend. It became a running joke – Karl shared Penn listening to the ’80s song "Alone by Heart” and even gave Penn a tour of Galveston one day. Karl was happy to return home, healthy, after his two-week quarantine and offered to bring Penn over to anyone in need. For more, see “Using Humor to Get Through Covid” by Andria Frankfort. 

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