It came with the chill breath of December, seeping into the world slowly, biding its time. That winter, no one knew how one small virus would change everything. How it would change us.
The year of 2019 was a time of change for my family. We had just moved to Wuhan, a city in central China. I also remember that year as the fall I took my very first TPS class.
In December, we heard stories of an unfamiliar disease, but it crept in the shadows, never coming too near. On New Year’s Eve, we remembered it, but I and my friends had thoughts only for the coming year. Excitedly, we waited for the clock to strike midnight, hearts bubbling with eager anticipation. As soon as the hour and minute hands clicked perfectly into place, we leapt up and shouted, “It’s 2020!”
Little did we know what that year would bring.
Over the next few weeks, the virus spread silently and rapidly. One dreary January morning, I woke up to the unexpected news that the city was going to lock down before noon. Outside my bedroom window, the sky was gray with clouds, and our neighborhood seemed cold and empty, apartment buildings rising up into the bitter air.
My parents had woken to a flood of text messages. The city was in a state of panic. Some of our friends rushed to a train to get out of the city as soon as possible. Another local friend called my parents in tears, begging them to leave. We had a van, and we could have driven out of there before the city closed at ten. However, there was one problem. Our passports were at the Foreign Affairs Office, getting new visas. Without them, we couldn’t go anywhere. My father drove to the office to pick them up, but by the time he returned, all the roads out of the city were blockaded. We were trapped in a city of sickness.
Six days. To my ten-year-old self, it was an adventure, and I tallied our days in quarantine on the big blackboard in the dining room. Each morning, we never knew whether it would be the last day of quarantine or one of many. My mother walked to the grocery store, where people were making a mad dash for food and supplies. No one really knew what was going on, and it scared them. We registered with the US Consulate, trying to find out more information, and also with the hope of being included on an evacuation flight. One Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported that a flight would leave Wuhan the next day, but it turned out to be false information.
Those days were a time of anxiety, but also of hope, for we sang hymns every morning that calmed our spirits. We prayed, and our prayers were answered Monday night. I remember it well, for I listened as my parents made several phone calls and discussed what to pack and what to throw away. “We need to be at the airport by 5:00 a.m.,” they told us, and I was up by 4:30, ready to go. But the house was silent. In the middle of the night, the Consulate had changed the time over and over again. That day, we packed and repacked, threw food into a trash bag and then brought it out again for lunch. Finally, it was, “Be there by 5:00 p.m.”
The airport was like I had never seen it before. It was strangely empty, but a couple of flights were being arranged to take foreigners out of China, and people hurried to and fro, getting their baggage tagged, passports checked, and temperature taken. Most of the time was spent waiting, however. Standing in line. Sleeping on benches. Walking from place to place.
The flight was delayed for several hours, but at one in the morning the next day, we finally stepped onto a large, converted cargo plane with no windows and flight attendants wearing hazmat suits. It must have been the craziest ride of my life.
Despite the ups and downs of that week, we made it through, and today, I am grateful for the changes Covid-19 brought into my life. Because of it, we now have a new home and new friends, despite all we had to leave behind. Because of it, we were able to see our family in America when we traveled back on the evacuation flight. Because of it, we now sing hymns every morning. And because of it, I have a better understanding of the faithfulness of God through trials and tribulation.
Picture Credit: https://cdn.who.int/media/images/default-source/mca/mca-covid-19/coronavirus-2.tmb-479v.jpg?sfvrsn=4dba955c_12%20479w
Hey Cora! This article was so exciting and amazing! You are so talented!
Thank you, Priscilla!
This article is so well-written, Cora! It’s crazy to think it’s been so long since 2020. Great job!
Thank you!
I love this Priscilla!! Bravo!!
OOPS I MEANT CORA LOL
SRY
Thanks! Lol no problem!
Wow!!! This is amazing!
Thank you Sana!
Thank you for sharing your story, Cora; his is very well written! How scary it must have been to have been in the epicenter where the pandemic started. I am encouraged by your bravery and the bravery your family had trusting in the Lord and finding peace in singing hymns in the midst of waiting on God to move.
Our family went to America right before Covid happened we didn’t know to a year later that we were kicked out of China and were blacklisted