Living in the Pandemic
I can’t stand the Coronavirus/Covid-19. If it taught me anything is that it’s here, it’s going to be almost one year since it started in early 2020, and has given me time to reflect on what I still have today, my family.
In early 2020, I was doing my job Doordash, an online food delivery service for customers that buy from fast-food restaurants that I pick up their orders and deliver their food to them at either their home, apartment, or job. By the end of January, the whole world hears the news of Los Angeles Lakers Kobe Bryant who dies in a helicopter accident along with his daughter Gigi and seven other people that were also killed on board. Shocked and saddened by his loss, but never to forget one of the greatest basketball players of all time. The news made my whole family sad as we came together and held each other. His death still shocks me to this day!
Life goes on.
By the middle of February 2020, I went to work almost every day where I began hearing about the Coronavirus in the news. After I got off work, I went to a bar with some friends as we were talking and laughing about different types of video games, other people, and what we wanted to do with the rest of our lives to be successful to the point where we even started to talk a little bit about Covid-19. My friends and I had a couple of drinks and we said our farewells to one another and headed home for the night.
Then March 2020 happened.
The pandemic happened. People stayed home as millions would lose their jobs, toilet paper rolls were sold out, restaurants were shut down, and you couldn’t travel anywhere in the world at the time. Yet the one thing I thought about most, was my grandma. A year before the pandemic she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and survived the one-year mark. My whole family went to visit her in Texas that I loved her so much that I get sad very quickly when I think of my grandma.
By this time, I get another job, Instacart, where I was making more money delivering groceries to customers instead of fast food. Then I come to find out that my grandma ending up catching the coronavirus while battling pancreatic cancer. What made it heartbreaking was that my family couldn’t travel to Texas to see her and we could only see grandma through Facetime. My family showed her lots of love that each one of us had for her and to never forget what an amazing person she was. We said our goodbyes and the last thing she said was us was to keep the family together and never apart.
May 2020.
On my way to work, I get a notification on my Facebook page from one of my cousins that posted a message saying grandma Gloria passed away. I had to pull over and call my mom only to hear my aunt instead who confirmed the news. I took a second to take time for myself as I called my father and brother about grandmas passing. All I could do was continue working but after a few weeks, it hit me. The Maroon 5 song called “Memories” plays on the radio and I feel my body shaken up by this song that I start crying in the car thinking about how much I’m going to miss my grandma and never talking or seeing her again. Luckily I didn’t get into any accident and continued working as I wiped the tears off my face.
I come home to see both my parents, my two brothers, my sister-in-law, and my nephew. I tell them about how much I’ll miss grandma to the point I told them I cried listening to a song that made me think of her. They all understood my emotions and we gave each other big hugs and were grateful to have one another in these trying times.
Despite the pandemic that has devastated many families throughout the following months we should all be appreciative of the families that we still have today and cherish every moment we have with them. Either they’re five minutes away or live far away is to never forget who is still with us because one never knows what this pandemic or any other disease could do to a family.
If the pandemic taught me anything is to be grateful for the ties the bind.
