WiNK

April 3, 2020

My dad works at a local assistant senior living place. He is the 'APOD' (Assistant Plant Operations Director) which means if something is broken, he needs to fix it. Do not confuse that with a job of a custodian, as my dad is not the one to clean the building - he is not the reason COVID-19 entered his building.

On March 25, 2020, there were 22 cases in the building; mostly residents but some associates. That number is only increasing and so are the deaths. My dad has been living in the garage for three weeks until just a few days ago, he finally got a hotel room. He is so nervous that he will pass it to us, that he refuses to come in the house until the virus passes through the building and they don't have to worry about it anymore. The earliest he thinks that will be is a month.

When he comes home, on a nice day, my sister and I will play volleyball with him outside on our homemade-backyard court. But every time, he is wearing a mask and gloves and stays the 6-feet away from us. Yesterday, he even gave us gloves because of how bad this outbreak is getting.

His bosses and the people who come in to give people the tests don't believe my dad is eligible to receive one since "he hasn't been in close contact with the infected people." That's not even close to true. My dad is the one moving their stuff to a new room and moving their hospital beds. Sure he isn't a nurse that actually takes care of them but he has to touch their infected belongings... how is that not eligible for a test?

At this point, my dad is just waiting to get it so he can quarantine himself in the hotel room for the two weeks so he can finally come home again. While we, of course, don't want him to get sick and be hospitalized, him getting sick is probably the only solution to our situation.

Many articles have been published in the Connecticut news about his facility and they have all been saying that the building is under lockdown. Lockdown means "a state of isolation or restricted access instituted as a security measure;" my dad coming and going from work does not fit that definition. They are also missing proper protective equipment. They wear the normal (non medical grade) masks and gloves while wearing a painter's suit. That does not keep the infection away... not even close. They need full suits that they get fitted to make sure they are airtight and nothing can come inside.

It seems as though no one is taking the Coronavirus seriously. I see my peers and friends on social media taking spring break trips to other states or visiting others: people aren't staying home and not following social distancing protocols. These people don't understand that staying home can save many lives and help shorten this infection period, they think since they're not a newborn or older than 65, they are in the clear, but in reality, they're not. We are all affected and can have a tremendous impact on the pandemic's fate.

On Wednesday, I had my weekly 'Zoom' meeting with my club volleyball team. We learned that one of our teammate's mom is a nurse at a hospital in Brooklyn (right in the middle of everything), and another teammate whose mom works in Hong Kong and can't come back for another 3 months. My coach asked if there were any other parents who work in health care and I raised my hand. After I had explained our situation, they were all dead silent. Having heard about the dire situation at the care home on the news, they never realized that they could know someone who was being affected by it. Now they know someone directly affiliated with the crisis. Part of me found it kind of amusing to see the looks on their faces (as my British mom would say; they were gobsmacked).

Under normal circumstances, my dad cooks for us, not that my mom doesn't know how, it just worked out that my dad liked cooking more. Now that he is not at home, my mom is cooking, and let me just say, my dad and I are very similar in almost everything; looks, personalities, likes, dislikes, food choice. So now, with my mom cooking, there isn't as much choice in what goes on the table, but I won't complain, because I know she's going through a lot too.

Every night, our cat would sleep in my dad's arms and she would never let him sleep. But now, my dad is finding it even harder to sleep without her at all. My cat now sleeps on a little pile of his clothes everyday. It's upsetting seeing my cat without my dad because she doesn't understand why he isn't coming in the house and why he isn't petting her if he does. My sister and I are trying to adapt her into coming to our room at night, but she doesn't seem to like it as much and still ends up sleeping on our dad's clothes.

April 30, 2020

In the United States, there are a total of 1,029,674 cases and the peak is still rising. Aside from the growing number of known cases, close to 30 states have reopened to some degree. Everyone's mindsets right now is that it is impossible for them to have the virus since they have been stuck in the house for all this time. Or, they're thinking that the virus is just gone since there have been less cases. What they don't understand is that COVID-19 is not a passing storm. You can very well get sick if you start going out again.
I've noticed that the people who aren't directly affected by this don't understand why we're still 'stuck' at home. Everyone who, either, has someone in the front lines, has someone who is sick or someone who has passed away are the people who are being careful and following the rule of going out with a mask; if they go out at all.

For about a month now, my dad has been living in a hotel room and occasionally, it almost gets taken away from him just because his boss decided he doesn't want to stay there anymore; possibly bringing my dad with him. Whenever my dad comes home, he tells us how his boss asks him what it will take for my dad to come into the house again. My dad's answer is if he gets both kinds of tests: the swab test that just shows him if he's sick or not sick right now and the antibody test that can tell him if he already had it and he can come in the house again.

This is what is wrong with what is going on right now: People like my dad, who are still working on the front lines, but not a government job (police, firefighter, doctor, etc.) aren't getting enough tests when they need them. The people still working at my dad's job aren't getting tests unless they were in direct contact with a resident who was sick. However, my dad touches everything... At the moment, he and his crew are the ones moving the residents' things and touching all their belongings.

I keep seeing people on social media posting about how they wish they could go back to school, or how their school year was 'cancelled,' or how they just want to be able to go outside again. Then there are the people who are protesting that it is 'un-American' and 'not constitutional' to be told to stay home. All of these people going outside without masks and being so close to one another is just going to increase the amount of cases again and put all the police officers in a bad position where they can get sick just because of these people's impatience and how they can't comprehend what is going on in the world.

May 21, 2020

The one month without my dad at home has now turned into more than two. A few days ago, his time at the hotel ended and he is back to sleeping in a tent in our garage. As terrible as that is, it is nice to know he's under (part of) the same roof as us at night and we have been able to eat dinner together, sitting on opposite ends of our deck. I know there are many people going through so much more than us. I am grateful and trying to make the best of this situation. We have started new rituals: jigsaw puzzles, watching Jeopardy with my mom every night and LOTS of TikTok and One Direction videos. We have even given each other haircuts and it turns out we're not that bad at it!

The scary thing is that there is no way of knowing how long this will last. We all have to be patient, be selfless, be smart and be kind to each other so we can get through this together.

Below: Ioanna, her sister Emmanuella, '18, and their dad, in a socially distanced TikTok video