Blog — Cher Gatto

Photo by Marcelo Leal on Unsplash — *Photo by* *Marcelo Leal* on *Unsplash*

I asked my high school students this week to share how the Corona Virus is affecting them. No school. More downtime. Extra projects. Those are some of the answers I got. One student, however, whose mother is a nurse in the local hospital, gave us a glimpse of the added stresses on a family in the medical field. Here’s an excerpt of her journal shared with permission:

This has been affecting me more than I thought it would. I’m not so much stressed about the disease itself, but it’s bringing a lot of stress on my family. First of all, my mom is taking care of a lot of Corona patients, so she’s working overtime and often comes home crying, sleep-deprived, and exhausted. She works the night shift, and all the doctors she works with are high-risk and can’t go into the rooms to evaluate the Corona patients, so she does. They don’t have enough tests or beds. Someone stole their proper masks, so she doesn’t have the right protection for her job. When she comes home all the boys go to their rooms, and I help her discretely undress before coming inside. While she showers, I wash her scrubs. Then I sanitize everything she’s touched, including the entire laundry room before the boys are allowed to come out of their rooms. My dad is working 14-hour days from home, plus doing night school. And my mom is either working or sleeping, so I have taken over a lot of the general responsibilities, like grocery shopping for my family and for my grandparents who live 20 minutes away but can’t leave the house. I help my grandma too with her 16 medications like my mom normally does. And I am cooking meals for my family and cleaning. My life has totally stopped. My mom’s job has added a lot of stress to our whole family. She says that it’s almost definite that she will end up with Corona, and probably we will too because of exposure to her.

Let’s remember to pray for our families serving sacrificially during this time. Those who are going above and beyond to help others at the risk of themselves and even their own families.

Thank you, nurses, doctors, and medical staff. Thank you, teenagers who are shouldering more than you ever thought you would or could in this time. Our hearts go out to you. And we are grateful!