I’m the middle child in my family. I have an older sister and a younger brother. My brother is a college student and my older sister owns a hair salon. My name is Leyla.

We lost our father almost five years ago and our mother was diagnosed with small bowel cancer two years ago. Losing our father to a heart attack while we were so young had a harsh impact on our lives and our perspective towards diseases.

Ever since COVID-19 took over the world in such a shocking way, we are now worried to death about our mother. As you may know, the risk of getting infected with COVID-19 in older individuals with specific diseases is high. And cancer is no joke, which is why we all isolated ourselves at home in order to protect the house from any germs carried in. We only leave the house for taking our mother to the weekly medical controls, chemotherapy, getting her medication, or shopping for goods.

I am obsessed with my job because seeing kids daily makes my day. I have been working for almost a decade and had always been dreaming of this job. Undergraduate schools have mainly been closed or continued online since the pandemic, so I’m not working any longer. All I care about is my mom and my family’s health.

My sister’s job has been delaying or canceled due to the several lockdowns happening. But even when working was allowed for her, she wouldn’t leave the house to work. My younger brother also never left the house; they have been taking their courses online.

So it’s been two years since we almost stopped going out or working. I sometimes feel like we are kind of being obsessive, but at least we won’t be feeling any regrets as long as our mother is healthy with us. Months ago when I realized most of our savings were gone, I started with online education for kids to have my income back. Although it’s not as satisfying as seeing kids in person, it still makes me get their loving vibes and keeps me busy. It also made me appreciate the power of the internet.

We all became slightly depressed staying home all the time, we miss working outdoors, socializing with other people, sunbaths on the beach, and we even forgot the smell of the air outside. All I wish is for everyone to get through these hard days with good health and patience. I hope the day comes that the only thing left from this virus would be few history pages.