RD&T contributing writer, Tal Araim, encourages people to take the time to consider the quality of their relationships during the Covid stay-at-home orders. He says it’s a great time to have some hard conversations.

I can’t even begin to imagine what victims of this pandemic are going through. I had two weeks of fever, headaches, shivers, and nightly sweats, but comparatively speaking, my case was considered mild. I wasn’t even tested as my breathing was fine. My daughter, however, gave us a bit of a scare; she stopped breathing and had to be taken to hospital last week. We were told that even her case was not considered severe; they concluded that yes, she must have Covid19, and yes, she probably caught it from me.

Luckily, her immune system shut down momentarily, had an asthma attack, controlled the virus and then resumed normal breathing, and continued to fight it. I have to say that the lack of certainty was not reassuring. It seemed as if the medical staff can only give an educated guess and because they were so overwhelmed, they were calm and very matter of fact about my daughter’s condition. We sympathise with all medical staff, we wish them all the best during this time and are eternally grateful for their efforts.

So that was the fun and games we’ve been having over the past three weeks. This week, however, has been completely different. Our main problem this week is to figure out how to cope with the lockdown. On the face of it, telling someone all you have to do is stay home and do nothing sounds very manageable given why we are being asked to do so. Anyone with at least three brain cells can see that really there is no argument here; we need to stay home, stop the spread, help the medical staff, and do our bit to get us through this pandemic. Having said that, we are still human beings with thoughts and feelings and a wandering brain.