Pandemic Hit Us

 When the news about Covid19 hit us early in year 2020, everyone feels anxiety or fear. We have the apprehension that something bad or unpleasant will happen, the more so, DEATH.

Covid19 affects to different people in different ways. It does not choose who to afflict, may it be senior citizens, children, weak or healthy people.

Usually, those who fall sick with covid19 that have mild to moderate symptoms can recover without special treatment. But those who are weak or has an existing illness faced death earlier than expected.

(I won’t go into so much trouble as describing here what are those symptoms as they are widespread information in the internet.)

Yes, the pandemic hit us.

It afflicted by brother sometime in October last year. He has dry cough and fever. As the eldest of the siblings, they turn to me for any support and I have to act fast. I first removed his son from their house without me coming near them. He has only 1 child and is mature enough to be left alone. So I put him in quarantine in my sister’s house that is next to mine. It is an empty house since this is only used during school time.

My brother has diabetes and is taking maintenance. We fear for his life. His wife, who was left with him to take care for him, keeps on crying. We cannot do anything as we cannot go near them. All we can do is buy his medicines, supply them with food and other necessities.

I am glad that I have in my gardens a lot of herbal plants and trees that can help together with the meds prescribed to him by his doctor. He doesn’t want to go to the hospital and at that time the hospitals were fully booked. Every day, my other brother delivered to his residence the herbal leaves for him to make a concoction to drink, medicines that we bought and their daily food.

I also fear for my brother who was tasked to buy the meds and deliver the goods as he has a history of lung operation. We have to make sure that he is safe. A table was placed outside their gate for the items to be placed there. And then my brother calls them to inform them to get the goods from outside.

We keep on counting the days from the start of his coughing and fever. When 10 days passed and he regained back his sense of smell, we were full of relief. But by that time, his wife was afflicted also, but she has very mild symptoms. She recovered in a just a matter of a few days.

We keep their son quarantined for a few more weeks before letting him go home.

Then just this January, my sister who works in a bank got afflicted also. It seems that covid19 is rampant in their bank but those that were not inflicted yet were not allowed to leave and has to keep on working.

She first started coughing and soon lost her sense of taste and smell, though she has no fever. I keep on telling her to rest but they are not allowed to do so unless they are positive of covid19. So I told her to stop by a medical facility who offers drive thru testing and in just a few hours she got her result which is antigen positive.

It was then another start of our apprehension as she has two young children. She wants to stay in her house near mine for quarantine. We told her that she has to do her quarantine at her house with the children as they also need to be quarantined due to close contact. So for two weeks, we again have to deliver goods to her residence. My two brothers, the one who recovered and the one who has lung operation are now my delivery boys.

Every four hours, we require her to message us her temperature and oxygen level. After five days, her husband and kids start coughing. Her husband wants them to move to the government facility as he was ashamed of the neighbors knowing that they are positive. This got me sooooo angry. I shouted to them during our video call to think of the children and NOT their neighbors. They have the best quarantine facility, which is their house and he want them to move to government quarantine facility. WTF!

In just a week after learning about my sister’s positive case, my third brother who is working in New Zealand, message me that his wife is positive with covid19.

She has no one with her as her family lives in another province. She lives alone in a rented room near Shangri-la Hotel where she worked.

She has cough and fever. When the result of her swab test came out, the local government came and pick her up to be quarantined in their facility. She was not allowed to do her quarantine in her rented room as there are other tenants there. But we are glad since their facility is a new school building and is quite clean.

We again have to bring provisions to her at the quarantine facility. We asked for her update every now and then.

Eventually both my sister and her family and my sister-in-law recovered from the pandemic. My sister-in-law was released from the quarantine facility last Friday.

I keep on praying to protect us and shield us from covid19 and I hope it will not come near us once again.

I am not proud to say that covid19 hit my family, but I am proud to announce that we have survived.

Let us all stay safe and protected.

Thanks for dropping by.

 Lead image form Unsplash