Скачать или смотреть Pandemic Reunion: The 3000-mile Smile

I live in Oakland, California. My mom lives in Connecticut.

The pandemic kept us apart for 12 months, all of 2020, including Christmas Day.

It was our first Christmas apart in almost 30 years.

Although I’d taken measures to travel to the east coast for the holiday (testing, isolating, flying, isolating, testing), my mom had tested positive for Covid-19 the week before I landed.

The silver lining to her experience: it showed that one reaps what they sow.

For 15 years, my mom has cared for others, building community among her patients and fellow nurses. So when she fell sick and couldn’t go to work, her friends and colleagues took notice.

They visited her at home, day after day, in full PPE, making sure that she had what she needed. One friend may have even saved her life on the worst day of the infection, when my mom felt that oxygen was in short supply.

Although I was staying a few hours away in Jersey, she asked that I stay put just in case she was still contagious, but after 3 weeks of sickness the chance of transmission was very low. As she continued recovering from the covid-pneumonia, I had to go see her.

Her smile was invaluable 💜

This post is only a fraction of her story. #oprah or somebody could make a whole movie about my mom's experience during this pandemic.
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Please, do what you can to help keep our healthcare workers safe. If you must travel, get tested and take every precaution that you can.

#nurses #essentialworkers #oakland #maskup #family #heroes #connecticut