My brother’s best friend who now lives in Boston was flying to his native country Grenada, the Spice Island to get married. The wedding was planned for Easter Monday 2020 to the bride to be who resides in Grenada. In early November 2019 tickets were purchased for eleven passengers to depart April 1st from Seattle to Grenada via New York and life continued at the usual pace until the time was nigh.
Then boom, Mr. Covid19 made history in Seattle by registering the first deaths in the United States. Seattle, Washington seated on the northwestern coast of the US is home to many Asians and maybe it should not have come as a surprise that the state would be hit first. Even though the very first case in the US was in Seattle on January 21st, 2020, it was not taken seriously until February 29th when the first death was widely reported. Despite this, we still planned on going even with all this happening. I told myself “we have to take precautions, but WE MUST LIVE”.
One death quickly led to sixteen, albeit the majority were linked to the nursing home at the Life Care Center of Kirkland, Washington. About a week, with a cruise ship quarantined off the California coast, senior citizens especially those with compromised immune systems were advised not travel for long distances, not use public transportation and to not cruise. Our party included two members in their seventies, one who has had or presently has every possible ailment including diabetes, and cancer. Another member suffers from lupus, an autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune system attacks healthy tissue. There were also three children aged three years and below in the group. My mom who is in Grenada discouraged us from coming because she did not trust that we could remain safe since we would have to be cooped in an aircraft for over ten hours in total. Also, there was the possibility that we may be quarantined at the isolation ward of the general hospital upon arrival since we were flying from the coronavirus epicenter in the United States. A hospital quarantine was unlikely given the large group size and the relatively limited beds available. Home quarantine was more probably but it meant having fourteen days of ‘quarantine vacation’. So, despite the planning, the prospects of enjoying a Grenadian wedding, the desire for a vacation, the excitement of seeing grandma and Lucy grandma Ann (my three-year-old niece’s reference to her grandma and great grandmother) we let better judgement prevail. What has probably topped off all of this is the Superstar of it all, JETBLUE. We booked the flights in early November 2019 but JETBLUE cancelled all our tickets without penalty nor fees and gave us a year to use the credit of about US$7000 for future trips. Now I understand what they meant when they talked about peace of mind in this season of Coronavirus.
Meanwhile we have prepared by stocking food, toiletries, cleaning supplies and medications. Work from home has become the order of the day as major companies, Amazon, Facebook and Microsoft has instructed employees to telecommute. Universities including the University of Washington and some school districts have closed with the former conducting online classes. Covid19 has truly changed the way we live but at this point the horse is already out of the stable and it will run its course. Then we will resume some sort of normalcy and take a most deserved post Covid19 vacation for real, no tomfoolery this time.
DillaTalks 