{"id":4621,"date":"2022-01-27T10:31:44","date_gmt":"2022-01-27T08:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ummforat.com\/?p=4621"},"modified":"2024-10-21T08:04:14","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T08:04:14","slug":"after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/en\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\/","title":{"rendered":"After two years of evasion, COVID caught up with our family"},"content":{"rendered":"

We turned our lives upside down trying to evade the coronavirus. It finally arrived in a weakened form, leaving us in maddening, beautiful isolation together.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A sick day<\/strong><\/p>\n

Osama left to take the children to school and preschool but returned an hour later with seven-year old Forat.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe threw up when we got out of the car,\u201d he explained. \u201cMaybe because she was reading one of her fairy books during the ride.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forat seemed pretty healthy, but coronavirus infection rates had skyrocketed in Raleigh, North Carolina, our home for Osama\u2019s sabbatical, so I took her to get a COVID test.<\/p>\n

COVID arrives<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two days later, I awoke to an email notifying me that Forat\u2019s COVID test was positive. She had already recovered, if she had ever been sick. At that point, I had developed an itch in the back of my throat. I donned a mask and gave the news to Osama, who was still in bed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe Forat and I should go into isolation in the children\u2019s room? I think I\u2019m also infected,\u201d I told him.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy head hurts,\u201d Osama said. We looked at four-year old Adam, who slept next to Osama, after sneaking into our bed in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n

\u201cBring me a mask too,\u201d Osama said.<\/p>\n

We were among the first in the drive-through line for a COVID test, in a huge parking lot outside a hockey arena. A smiling 50- or 60-something man approached our car and asked how many test kits we wanted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree,\u201d I said. \u201cMy daughter already has COVID, and for that reason you shouldn\u2019t get too close to our car window.\u201d<\/p>\n

His smile widened, and he spoke in a soft Southern accent. \u201cIn November, I spent two weeks in intensive care with COVID,\u201d he announced. \u201cThey brought a priest to give me last rites. You don\u2019t scare me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look wonderful,\u201d I told him. He seemed strong and energetic, with a round face red from the cold.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m the events coordinator for the Saving Grace Church,\u201d he said. \u201cTwo hundred people gathered under my hospital window to shout encouragement. The nurses said they never saw anything like it. You\u2019ll also get through this just fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

A weakened enemy<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the days that followed, as we waited for our test results, I thought of that smiling man, who recovered from a near-death bout with COVID and now spent his time reassuring worried, coughing and sneezing would-be patients that we would weather the pandemic together. When we first got home from the testing site, we tried to protect Adam, but in the afternoon he said he wanted to sleep, a sure sign that he was already sick. I removed my mask, lay down next to him and held him close, worried that his unvaccinated body was now encountering a completely novel virus, one that had killed millions of people.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The days passed slowly. Our test results came back\u00a0positive. Tense, we waited for a sudden turn for the worse, a powerful bout of illness, but none arrived. The children ate and played. I continued running in the mornings. Osama took acetaminophen for his headache.<\/p>\n

After two years in which we turned our lives upside down trying to evade the coronavirus, it caught up to us, but in a weakened form, after most of us were vaccinated, and scientists had developed effective treatments that we knew we could access if necessary. A virus that had ravaged the bodies of so many – made mine feel as if I had developed an ordinary, mild cold.<\/p>\n

We resumed the kind of isolation<\/a><\/span> we had undergone in the first few months of the pandemic, when the Palestinian authorities imposed a strict lockdown<\/a><\/span> of West Bank cities, and for three months I was the only one who left our apartment, to buy groceries, fearful of touching surfaces or getting close to other human beings. Then, as now, Osama and I divided the days, such that at any given moment, one of us worked while the other took care of the children. Those had been difficult but also beautiful days, when time stood still, and the days blurred together into a routine of cooking, playing, fighting between the children and always \u2013 together.<\/p>\n

Now, we found water paints in the closet and made an art exhibit. We separated the children, who seemed to hit each other about every hour. I screamed at Forat when she broke into the bedroom a minute before I gave a Zoom lecture to 150 people. We baked granola. We strung beads.<\/p>\n

Maybe this is how the acute phase of the pandemic ended for us, with the threat of the virus dissipating for our family, leaving just slow, maddening, beautiful time together in isolation.<\/p>\n

This post was also published on haaretz.com on January 27, 2022:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/us-news\/.premium-we-eluded-covid-in-ramallah-but-it-finally-caught-up-with-us-in-america-1.10570764<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We turned our lives upside down trying to evade the coronavirus. It finally arrived in a weakened form, leaving us in maddening, beautiful isolation together. \u00a0 A sick day Osama left to take the children to school and preschool but returned an hour later with seven-year old Forat. \u201cShe threw up when we got out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_crdt_document":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_bookmark_settings":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[20,37,52,53,55,58,61,72],"class_list":["post-4621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coronavirus","category-fitting-in","tag-covid-19","tag-israel","tag-occupation","tag-omicron","tag-palestine","tag-pandemic","tag-quarantine","tag-vaccines"],"yoast_head":"\nAfter two years of evasion, COVID caught up with our family - Sari Bashi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/en\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"After two years of evasion, COVID caught up with our family - Sari Bashi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We turned our lives upside down trying to evade the coronavirus. It finally arrived in a weakened form, leaving us in maddening, beautiful isolation together. \u00a0 A sick day Osama left to take the children to school and preschool but returned an hour later with seven-year old Forat. \u201cShe threw up when we got out […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/en\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sari Bashi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-27T08:31:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-10-21T08:04:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Jan-22-quarantine-art-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"sari.bashi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"sari.bashi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"sari.bashi\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/962062959e5dc3c5a170df154a8b5fef\"},\"headline\":\"After two years of evasion, COVID caught up with our family\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-27T08:31:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-10-21T08:04:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":823,\"commentCount\":14,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/Jan-22-quarantine-art-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"COVID-19\",\"israel\",\"occupation\",\"omicron\",\"palestine\",\"pandemic\",\"quarantine\",\"vaccines\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Corona Virus\",\"Fitting In\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\\\/\",\"name\":\"After two years of evasion, COVID caught up with our family - Sari Bashi\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/Jan-22-quarantine-art-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-27T08:31:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-10-21T08:04:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/962062959e5dc3c5a170df154a8b5fef\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/Jan-22-quarantine-art-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/01\\\/Jan-22-quarantine-art-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1920},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"After two years of evasion, COVID caught up with our family\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Sari Bashi\",\"description\":\"Award-winning author of Upside-Down Love and the Umm\u00a0Forat\u00a0blog\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/962062959e5dc3c5a170df154a8b5fef\",\"name\":\"sari.bashi\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/24640d543b36b145ed24aa4e624236ddd9f2f57caa415d91be35acfce6fe2c5e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/24640d543b36b145ed24aa4e624236ddd9f2f57caa415d91be35acfce6fe2c5e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/24640d543b36b145ed24aa4e624236ddd9f2f57caa415d91be35acfce6fe2c5e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"sari.bashi\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/localhost\\\/umforat\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ummforat.com\\\/en\\\/author\\\/sari-bashi\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"After two years of evasion, COVID caught up with our family - Sari Bashi","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/en\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"After two years of evasion, COVID caught up with our family - Sari Bashi","og_description":"We turned our lives upside down trying to evade the coronavirus. It finally arrived in a weakened form, leaving us in maddening, beautiful isolation together. \u00a0 A sick day Osama left to take the children to school and preschool but returned an hour later with seven-year old Forat. \u201cShe threw up when we got out […]","og_url":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/en\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\/","og_site_name":"Sari Bashi","article_published_time":"2022-01-27T08:31:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-10-21T08:04:14+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1920,"url":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Jan-22-quarantine-art-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"sari.bashi","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"sari.bashi","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\/"},"author":{"name":"sari.bashi","@id":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/#\/schema\/person\/962062959e5dc3c5a170df154a8b5fef"},"headline":"After two years of evasion, COVID caught up with our family","datePublished":"2022-01-27T08:31:44+00:00","dateModified":"2024-10-21T08:04:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\/"},"wordCount":823,"commentCount":14,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Jan-22-quarantine-art-scaled.jpg","keywords":["COVID-19","israel","occupation","omicron","palestine","pandemic","quarantine","vaccines"],"articleSection":["Corona Virus","Fitting In"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/ummforat.com\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\/","url":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\/","name":"After two years of evasion, COVID caught up with our family - Sari Bashi","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Jan-22-quarantine-art-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2022-01-27T08:31:44+00:00","dateModified":"2024-10-21T08:04:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/#\/schema\/person\/962062959e5dc3c5a170df154a8b5fef"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ummforat.com\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Jan-22-quarantine-art-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Jan-22-quarantine-art-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1920},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/after-two-years-of-evasion-covid-caught-up-with-our-family\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"After two years of evasion, COVID caught up with our family"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/","name":"Sari Bashi","description":"Award-winning author of Upside-Down Love and the Umm\u00a0Forat\u00a0blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/#\/schema\/person\/962062959e5dc3c5a170df154a8b5fef","name":"sari.bashi","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/24640d543b36b145ed24aa4e624236ddd9f2f57caa415d91be35acfce6fe2c5e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/24640d543b36b145ed24aa4e624236ddd9f2f57caa415d91be35acfce6fe2c5e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/24640d543b36b145ed24aa4e624236ddd9f2f57caa415d91be35acfce6fe2c5e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"sari.bashi"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/localhost\/umforat"],"url":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/en\/author\/sari-bashi\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4621"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5078,"href":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621\/revisions\/5078"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ummforat.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}