Living with Covid (in the house)
A close brush with coronavirus gave me a reality check
December 2020
Day 1
“Sorry, guys, but the test has come back positive”. The words felt like a hammer blow.
Covid-19 had just arrived home.
Worldwide, 2020 has already been an annus horribilis. Coronavirus has swept through every single country, regardless of GDP or religion. As an English language teacher, I was one of the first ones to be made aware of the devastation wreaked by this most unwelcome visitor. My school, like all the others in the UK, closed down in late March.
Yet, deep within my psyche (and I only came to this conclusion after reading and re-reading the text from my landlord to both my housemate and me letting us know that he’d contracted the virus) was the thought that all this was happening somewhere else. How reality-defying must one be before reality imposes itself? Sometimes in the most unaccommodating of circumstances.
I rang my girlfriend immediately to tell her the news. She, too, would have to inform her housemate. Our Christmas plans would have to be cancelled, much to our disappointment. My self-isolation would have to start straight away.
