“My son looked at me with heavy, sad eyes. ‘Mommy, can you PLEASE call the doctor and ask if I can go play yet?!’ My heart sank. Co-workers bombarded me with, ‘Oh, great. Just what I need. Now I’m supposed to get tested TOO?’ I felt I let everyone down for simply being exposed. I cried the whole way home.”
‘TELL ME WHAT THIS MEANS!’ I sent a screenshot to my nurse friend on the frontlines. ‘You have COVID, Maggie. It means your positive.’: Woman candidly recounts journey with COVID-19
‘Your baby doesn’t go home with a quick fix prescription. You know every inch of the hospital. Life can’t resume as normal.’: Mom pens appreciation letter for ‘mamas of very sick kids’
“I took my otherwise healthy daughter to the ER for lethargy and a high fever. As I watched her rest, I heard beeping and babies crying for hours straight. I saw mamas pacing every open space. Thing is, we don’t always acknowledge the mamas who do this every day.”
‘Masks were worn here before the pandemic. It’s not political. It’s not an infringement of rights. It’s a matter of, ‘Maybe it’s just allergies, but I don’t know for sure.’: Woman urges ‘community is a beautiful thing’
“Not once has any individual in Japan told me, ‘This is Japan. We speak Japanese here. Go back to where you came from.’ Not one time. I love my country dearly, hear that. But in so many ways, I KNOW we can do better.”
‘My daughters rushed across the hall. ‘Mommy, Bates is spitting up blood. You need to come.’ One of his arteries had opened in his throat.’: Mom urges ‘don’t take your children for granted’
“My son, Bates, was only 7 years old. He started coughing up blood uncontrollably – over and over. It wouldn’t stop. I remember the horrific scene of him leaning over the sink. Earlier that day, I’d been frustrated with him for not remembering to put something away. In this moment, I realized how trivial it seemed.”
‘We received our test results: positive. I’d done so much to avoid being infected. But there I was, staring at the inevitable rear its ugly head.’: Family recovering from COVID-19 urges ‘love hard, tomorrow is not promised’
“What we experienced is considered ‘mild.’ But believe me, by no means necessary, did it feel anything near mild. I prayed my kids would not get sick. One by one, they each started to have a low-grade fever.”
‘You will want to remember how it felt to wake up and ask, ‘What did I do yesterday? Did I shower? Did it rain?’: Woman says ‘remember these strange days when the horror wears off’
“I want you to remember this, because years from now, a lifetime from now, when we’re leaving somewhere, saying goodbye, when I’m hugging you tight and tighter still, and we both laugh, and yet I don’t let go—you will know why.”
‘How did this happen?’ I was compliant. I self quarantined early out of precaution. I thought I followed the rules.’: Woman tests positive for coronavirus, ‘I don’t wish this illness onto anyone’
“You might think you’re being safe, but I thought that too. Someone I came in contact with wasn’t. That’s why I’m sick. Someone didn’t wash their hands or cover their mouth. They didn’t avoid public places. They carried on like normal.”
‘This virus will spread and turn awful.’ I didn’t want him to see me cry. He pulled me to him. I covered his shirt with tears.’: Covid-19 forces college student to leave school, boyfriend, ‘The two things I craved most were taken from me’
“We both confessed our love for each other. It was so cute. Every time I think about it, it just makes me happy. Then, boom! Coronavirus shows up and changes everything. I felt as though I had started loving someone for no reason. I was emotionally drained. It hurts me daily.”
‘I called my mom hysterically crying, ‘I don’t want to cross the border alone. It’s too dangerous!’ Everyone was silent.’: Young woman takes risk leaving US during pandemic, ‘I’ve never wanted to be home so badly’
“The news was showing tons of people who were stuck in different countries because of the border closing. ‘Will I be stuck in Mexico? I’m a United States citizen, they can’t tell me no, right?’ I was so nervous! I didn’t want it to be me.”
‘If I’m forced to self-isolate a majority of the time, you can for a few months!’: Young woman with chronic illness begs for social distancing, ‘Maybe we will become better humans when it’s over’
“To those saying, ‘it’s just a virus,’ you may be able to fight it off with no issues if you were to contract it. But guess what? It’s not just about you! It’s about everyone.”
