At first I thought the media was being overdramatic. I didn’t understand how a virus in China would affect my family and schooling in the United States.
When the Virus was spreading to Italy and other countries, I thought I was untouchable. ‘The United States knows what to do in a crisis, everything would be fine. We will take precautions before it even steps foot in America. There’s nothing to worry about’, I kept telling myself.
At the start of March I thought that I was immune to this and was saddened to have to leave Oneonta. My family took me the week after spring break to get my stuff and I ended up staying a few days just to say goodbye to my home away from home.
I really thought we were going to come back to Oneonta at the end of March and this hysteria would be over. Little did I know this was the beginning of the end.
March 31st, 2020 my grandmother tested positive for COVID-19. The virus would then spread and infect my entire household.
During the time I was in Oneonta my great-grandfather would be admitted into the hospital for shortness of breath. Turned out it was his congestive heart failure but once he was out of the hospital, he was too weak to care for himself anymore so my family had to make the difficult decision to have my great-grandparents (92 & 94 years old) come live with us during this hard time. We have a multi family house so we thought it was the best decision since there would be people to care for him here.
However, we began to see just how dangerous and real this virus was after this week. We all tried our best to be quarantined and stay clean. But my great-grandmother was the first one to show symptoms. She slowly got exhausted and started to have a high fever and bad cough. We called the emergency hotline provided by the state to make an appointment and they said to take her to a walk-in clinic.
My grandmother and great-grandmother took the test for the virus but it would take 48 hours to hear the results. From that moment the walk-in doctor knew something was wrong and called an ambulance for my great-grandmother. She was rushed to the hospital because the virus is affecting her heart.
April 1st, the day after my grandmother’s results came back positive, my great-grandmother’s results came back positive as well.
My great-grandmother is still in the hospital being quarantined there while everyone in our house has been showing symptoms. It has been a roller coaster of emotions. How could something I thought was so far away affect my life this much?