Three months into the beginning of NY Pause, I started to write again…
While Italy was already in a complete lockdown because of the Coronavirus, in Usa we kept pretending we were safe… till we were not.
Most of my New Yorker friends reached out to me to make sure my family in Italy was ok and, even if I always deeply appreciated their concern, I also shared with them we had to worry in the US as well.
We weren’t aware of any cases at that time… that didn’t mean we didn’t have any!
It was like witnessing a train wreck in slow motion and not being able to prevent it from happening.
A lot of expats might have experienced the same.
When I started to cover classes for my colleagues (I’m a fitness instructor) as they got sick, I realized it was too late.
Even if I suffer of asthma, I never once was afraid about my health. I feared for my students to get sick.
On March 13th, Trump declared a National Emergency Concerning the COVID-19 Outbreak. The day after, I still taught 4 classes like nothing happened…
Luca – my husband – picked me up to leave for two days Upstate NY. We usually take a break from the City during our days off and I’m so grateful we grocery shopped before: the next day, on March 15th, I wake up with 101.6 fever!
That’s how our NY Quarantine started: isolating for 15 days.
Two days later, Luca wake up with 101.8 fever and our doctor suggested us not to go to the hospital unless we had respiratory problems… there weren’t enough tests and it was better for us just to isolate.
I then found out I was actually exposed to a positive case on Friday 13th and now that Luca took the antibodies test we know it was Covid-19.
During those 15 days, a terrible news came from Italy: a very dear family friend was hospitalized. We kept praying and holding on to hope… six days later my mom called me to say he didn’t make it.
Beside a deep pain, I felt powerless and outraged. I could only express my emotions through pics and few words I kept sharing on my social media.
In my sorrow, I felt blessed for all the love around me. Love always heals. Eventually.
The pic I chose for this post was taken by our friends Alfreda e Roberto: they made fresh pasta and displayed it on the table creating “Ce la faremo” – we’ll get through this – to welcome home her daughter after a night shift as a nurse in the Covid section.
All together, we’ll get through this. We will also overcome grief.
