The whole world has been affected by COVID-19 and my family is not any different. This includes not being able to go to work, school or having COVID-19.
For most of the pandemic, our family did really well and did not get the virus. But in early November, my grandmother got it. My grandmother was sick for some time. She had heart disease and shortness of breath for the last few years. My grandmother was at risk because if she got COVID-19, she could easily die from it.
Since my grandmother had been sick with heart disease for quite a while, my mother would check on her regularly, almost everyday, with some of her brothers and sisters helping her as well. Some of my mother’s brothers are doctors or work in the medical field.
On Nov. 4, my grandmother first got the symptoms of COVID-19. Since my mom visited my grandmother everyday, my mother started to get COVID-19 symptoms as well.
On Nov. 8, my mother and brother both tested positive for COVID-19. A few days later, my father tested positive for COVID-19 as well. All three of them were told to quarantine for the next 14 days.
The CDC said if you are in close contact with or have COVID-19, you have to be quarantined for the following 14 days.
After finding out her results, my mother called me on that Sunday night to tell me that I should stay at school for the next two weeks. My mother did not want me to come home the next weekend because she didn’t want me to get COVID-19.
I go home every other weekend to visit my family. I live at East Residence Hall while I am at Cabrini with a roommate.
I felt like it was my responsibility to not go home so I did not come back and give my roommate COVID-19. But things change, especially dealing with COVID-19.
On Nov.14, I got a call from my mother saying my grandmother was dying and if I wanted to come see her for the last time, I could. So I went to my grandmother’s house and what I saw was something out of the news. Everyone in my grandmother’s house was wearing a mask and scared to touch each other. My grandmother passed away later that same night.
The next day I went home to watch the Eagles game with my family. We all had to wear masks and spread out.
I wanted to ask my family about their experiences dealing with COVID-19 and what COVID-19 felt like.
“The body pains were the worst,” Brian Finley my younger brother said. “It felt like being hit by a car which sucks because I got charlie horses while lying in bed.”
My brother even had to miss his football game because he could not even go near the team because he did not want any of his teammates to get COVID-19.
“It feels like you’re on a seesaw. One minute you are feeling great and then you feel terrible and can’t move,” my father said.
“I could not move off the coach for a few days while I was sick with COVID-19,” Gretchen Finley my mother said. “I felt worse because I was worrying about my mother while I was trying to get better from COVID-19.”
After many good months of practicing social distancing for COVID-19, I finally got COVID-19. I was around too many people with COVID-19 trying to grieve my grandmother’s death. I am doing well. I am quarantining at my house and stopping the spread of the virus to anyone else.
