During the first wave of Covid-19 my entire family caught the virus. My sister who worked the Covid ward in a hospital was the first one to test positive followed quickly by my wife, children, mother, sister in law and all 6 children in our family. A few days later 3 maids and the cook also tested positive.
This was despite the fact we took every single precaution and had not left the house for weeks. My sister caught the virus at her hospital even though she was always in full protective gear and passed it on to everyone in her immediate family. She was absolutely devastated when she saw everyone around her falling sick one by one. She kept blaming herself and somehow thought she is at fault.
It wasn't easy because at that time the death rate around the world was much higher and there was all sorts of things still to be learned about Sars-Cov2. Fortunately my father who is 70 years old did not catch the virus and we were able to isolate him in a different house.
So in total 13 people living at the premises were infected with varying degrees of symptoms. Surprisingly my test was negative. Now I had to look after 13 people with absolutely no help since I couldn't ask anyone to come over and lend me a hand because of the nature of the virus. I remember the phone call from my father in law. He sounded very panicky and asked me how I was going to manage all this.
Damn those were tough days man. My wife and mother actually got very ill. It took my wife months to recover. Her fever broke on the 22nd day and she had fatigue and brain fog for months. I must have caught the virus eventually but was asymptomatic since the kids who were all sick were jumping on me the entire day and I was feeding them, playing and sleeping with them etc. I also had to get food, medicine and rest of the necessary stuff to every sick individual at home. After the second day I simply gave up and stopped wearing a mask. I was going room to room cracking jokes to cheer up everyone, sitting with them and giving encouragement etc.
That month was the longest month of my life. The kids recovered very quickly thankfully. 2-3 days and they were all back to their usual business. The maids along with my sister in law were also able to recover within 5 days. It took my sister about 10 days to feel better and my mother about 20. But my wife who is actually a very tough cookie was knocked out for an entire month. Her energy was gone, she couldn't even walk. I had to support her when she had to walk somewhere. But Alhamdulilah now each and everyone has fully recovered. There seems to be no long time lingering health issues and things have returned to normal.
It was extremely difficult and fascinating at the same time how this virus was raging inside different bodies and what symptoms it was causing different individuals. I had the unique experience of living with and watching very closely 13 different people from the age of 6 months to 62 years infected by Sars-Cov2. I am thankful to Allah that we all made it out safe and healthy.
