'Haven't Hugged My Mom in a Month:' Kids of Health Care Workers Feel the Strain
As front line health care workers dedicate long hours to caring for patients during the COVID-19 crisis, life has changed for their own families — especially their children. Here's a look inside the lives of four families' kids.
As front line health care workers dedicate long hours to caring for patients during the COVID-19 crisis, life has changed for their own families — especially their children.
Some hospital workers are staying away from their families to protect their kids. Others are living in the same house and taking extra precautions to avoid passing along the virus. Many children of nurses and doctors are navigating the unpredictability of life without regular school, along with the stress of worrying about their parents. Here's a look inside the lives of four families' kids.
Health Complications. And Then, the Coronavirus Hit
Olivia Bye, 14, in San Leandro
Olivia Bye, 14, likes her independence. But since the coronavirus outbreak, she’s had to be even more self-sufficient than usual. Olivia’s mom, Berenice Perez, is an emergency room doctor at a hospital in Oakland, and works long hours either treating COVID-19 patients directly or doing administrative work to address the hospital’s response to the crisis. Olivia’s dad works in IT tech support, a job requiring him to go into the office each day.
Olivia says the transition to spending days home alone hasn’t been too difficult. She prepares easy meals like pasta and grilled cheese to get her through the day, which she spends attending Zoom classes in advance of her eighth grade graduation. Despite those adjustments, Olivia says the biggest challenge has been worrying about her mom.
“My mom doesn't like to talk about [the coronavirus] a whole lot when she comes [home] from work,” said Olivia. “Sometimes we’ll have discussions about it, but it's her whole life now. So when she comes home she likes to have a little break and not to think about it constantly because she already does at the hospital.”
Berenice takes diligent precautions to ensure she doesn’t spread the virus around the house. She follows a system of leaving her protective coverall outside the door, sealing it in a bag, throwing it in the laundry, and quickly hopping in the shower — all while cleaning the surfaces she’s touched along the way. She also occasionally eats dinner on the other side of the room and sleeps in Olivia’s older sister’s empty bed.
All these precautions are extra important, Olivia said, because her mom had a hole in her heart that caused a small stroke last April, and had a procedure to close the hole in November. Berenice said she isn’t more susceptible to facing complications as a result of COVID- 19 than other women of her age. But it’s been challenging for the family to reconcile her recent health scare with the unknowns of the pandemic.
“I can tell that she's always nervous and on edge about it,” Olivia said. “She didn't really expect this to be her new reality. But it's her job, so she's just trying to figure out how to make it less scary. But she's always going to have a constant worry in the back of her mind.”
Olivia is worried, too. She said it’s been difficult to stay positive about the situation.
“I think the days where it feels really hard for me are the same days that it feels really hard for my mom,” she said. “It’s hard to know what the bright side could be. I guess I try and think it's not going to last forever. It is going to get better at some point.”
These days, Olivia calms her mind by connecting with friends and keeping up on her schoolwork. She also writes fictional stories to help her process her feelings. She’s even writing a character whose parent also suffers from health challenges.
“I can form any reality I want with this,” she said. “And I incorporate my feelings into the story as an outlet.”
More. (Note: This article was co-written with Sasha Khokha, host of The California Report Magazine.)
Hitting the Sweet Spot: San Francisco’s History of Chocolate
Long before the techpreneurs descended in multitudes, San Francisco was known for innovation in quite a different industry: chocolate. For Hong Kong Airline’s January 2019 edition of their inflight magazine, I spoke to some of the movers and shakers in the industry.
For Hong Kong Airline’s January 2019 edition of their inflight magazine, I wrote about San Francisco’s longstanding tradition of innovative chocolate-making. The article includes exclusive interviews with the movers and shakers of the Bay Area’s chocolate scene, including:
Alice Medrich, “The First Lady of Chocolate,” who first popularized the chocolate truffle at her Berkeley-based dessert shop, Cocolat.
Gary Guittard, “The Re-inventor of Tradition” and CEO of Guittard Chocolate Company, the oldest continuously owned and operated chocolate company in the country.
Todd Masonis, “The New Kid on the Block,” whose small-batch chocolate company, Dandelion Chocolate, has helped spearhead a bean-to-bar approach to chocolate.
Adam Smith, “The Craft Chocolate Cheerleader,” whose shop Fog City News carries 200+ types of craft chocolate bars from mainly American chocolate makers.
The article also includes a carefully curated roundup of things to do and see in San Francisco.
