I want to share how COVID-19 impacted my family. I am Sangay from Bhutan. I stay with my father, mother, and grandma outside Bhutan, we’re just on the border on the Indian side.

When the whole world was announcing lockdown, Bhutan too started lockdown on March 17th, 2020. My grandma has arthritis on her knees so she can’t walk much, we decided to stay outside and look after her meanwhile the whole family of ours were inside Bhutan. The Bhutan border was closed and there was no movement at all. Later, when His Majesty, King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck the Fifth King of Bhutan announced that all the Bhutanese residing outside could come back to Bhutan where they would be given food and shelter, we couldn’t leave grandma in her condition and decided to stay back.

We were going through the same thing as everyone due to COVID-19 until one day, on March 1st, 2021, my grandma had a cardiac arrest in her sleep, which lead to the damage of her right brain and half body paralysis.  She is now battling for her life and none of my family apart from the three of us, are able to be there for her. These could be her last days going on yet we are not able to make anything happen for her no matter how much we want to. There is the technology, of course, to keep in touch maybe via audio or video call but that isn’t the same as being in-person especially for someone on her death bed longing to see her family.

Like everyone else we are just left with one question and an unpredictable answer: “When is the Pandemic going to be over?”