My wife burst into tears when she realised that my chronically ill ass hasn't been able to play in months. I couldn't even finish a quick and small one shot that turned into a two shot. I even crafted my character to be mostly silent and layed back.
"Old man that only speaks when he knows it's wisdom" is a killer character concept though, for what that's worth. I'm picturing a real Uncle Iroh kind of guy. Doesn't speak that much but when he does people know to listen.
When I had covid I tried to run a game. Apparently my fever was high enough that while I thought what I was saying was fine but everyone else heard gibberish