39 Days Living With Covid 19: You will see a darker side than Covid 19

By Sophie Tan

This is a true story of Miao Ping Juen, a thirty-one-year-old mother and her struggles through the WUHAN VIRUS, as it devastated our country and the world. It is a story of despair, pain, and loss. Left to tackle the future alone by her late husband Zhang Qi, she has to face the wrath of the virus tearing her family further apart. A merciless pandemic which threatens even the most advanced levels of medicine, world over. She has been ambushed by unpreparedness both on her side and the government. Her one-year old son Man Tou, is removed from the all needed ICU services when it is discovered that she has no finances to cater for all hospitalization charges. Though devastated, not even the loss of her son will pin her down. In an environment where she is not allowed to have her phone due to tough government information rules, she steals a moment and writes a sensational personal experience article, which garners over two million views on Weibo and is later censored. She lives to take care of her daughter, Xiao Yu. Her ICU ward mate will later bring hope in her post COVID life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: May 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781716886812

Book preview

THIRTY-NINE DAYS LIVING WITH COVID-19

Introduction

My name is Miao Ping Juen, a mother of two now turning thirty-one. I was born in Chengdu District of China, but I now work in Beijing. My husband Zhang Qi, died one year ago after a short battle with lung cancer, leaving me eight months pregnant with our last-born son Zhang Han, his little name ‘Man Tou’ means Bun.

Zhang Qi was my life. I am not good at describing people, but getting over him looks like an impossible venture. He was the family sole breadwinner, leaving every day to attend to his startup IT company. A hard worker who juggled to maintain a new family and a new company. His was a bright future with everything so promising ahead of him. I stayed in the house, looking after our little girl Zhang Yu and we usually call by her little name Xiao Yu

I had never figured a life without him. There was no reason. We were young, just starting family life. In his occasional smoking, he had managed to convince me that there were near-zero chances of lung problems. It took three dramatic months to turn this around. Cancer is not a toy to cuddle. Not even doctors could attempt an operation on his deteriorating lungs. For them, he was gone. For me, every single day with him was like a minute. He died in pain, too fast I cannot describe it. He too had no words to bid goodbye to me or to his so adorable and helpless baby. For him, only tears on his face talked his last words.

One month later, I was to bear him a son Man Tou. I named him so to conquer and dominate his world and that of his dad.

In the past two and a half months it has been a new-normal. Sirens from ambulances have been our new music. A number in every direction. The feeling is like a burning town, with sirens of fire trucks.

Everyone is masked, not very new in this city but now so intense. It is compulsory to be in one. It does not have to be, but these are not ordinary times. Everyone is worried, every other person near you is a suspect. Never in my life had mistrust creeped in so much. Not a brother, nor a friend is to be trusted. You just need to keep distance. Social distance is the new term and every surface is suspicious too. It is a totally new city, bringing in a cloud dullness in every person.

Nearly two months after the novel COVID-19 was first diagnosed in Wuhan, it had now spread to Beijing. It was expected. Wuhan was already in lockdown, but this is a virus. I had heard of ‘spreading like a virus’ but I had not known how a virus itself spreads.

My mind ran through all my beloved, wishing all of them safety. I would not stop thinking of my children, so young so dear to me. These were my new worry and every day that I left for work left a portion of me at home. It never crossed my mind how of all people, this virus could choose to suppress a child, let alone mine. The word hospital was already a scare for me, a place where people go with slim chances of coming back. My late husband in hospital was still so fresh in my mind.

Early-morning of February 3rd 2020 found me at work, a waitress at the Kunglang Taizi restaurant on the Houhai lakefront near Jinding Bridge. It is on a busy street and every day brings lots of new people to our restaurant. On a normal day, we serve approximately three hundred people. My day starts at six in the morning and ends at three in the afternoon. It takes me twenty minutes to and from work, as I live on the fifth ring road, which takes me five minutes in a bus and another fifteen in a subway train. This city is the hallmark of Chinese culture and on this day I was turning seven months on the job.

A middle-aged man walked and sat at the table near the door. It is difficult to recall a face covered in a face mask. It was so early in the morning there were hardly ten people in the entire restaurant. His order was a light breakfast and we had some ample time to chat until his order was ready for me to serve. Our conversation was a quick run on the new ‘Wuhan Virus’ menace. He was quick to clear and leave like most early bird clients do. This city has several working class who eat everything off restaurants. For some reason, they do not eat home. I cleared his table and went about my busy schedule of the day.

I could hear someone chant Save Beijing from outside. TV screens in the restaurant all read ‘BREAKING NEWS’ at the bottom. This had been the case now for several weeks. The only reason Breaking news would end was to usher other Breaking news. Updates were unending with new measures coming in several times a day - from sanitation to movement restrictions. With the experience of other new viruses in the history of this country, there was no taking chances. Areas of common gathering were being shut one after the other and it was certain to see, ours would be no exemption.