It has been a hectic week filled with mixed emotions! Might not have been able to pull through it without the help of those around!

Family is down with COVID in India and some were hospitalized – although they have been vaccinated.

When children get COVID, it is difficult to comprehend and deal with it. Moreover, if parents and grandparents living in the same household also are impacted, where do our priorities lie?

Usually mothers in every home across the world have figured out the most safest protocols in terms of hygiene and diet that their families would follow and it would have been working for most part. When suddenly, the mother in the household is down and needs hospitalization, life comes to a standstill.

While children who recover need to be kept mentally active (yet physically quarantined), who has the bandwidth to deal with them. Having the resume online school seems to be the easiest option. With that comes homework and projects, tests and submissions. Usually the folks who help them are down sick, so what happens next?

Mothers usually start their daily routine with a coffee. It was difficult to figure out how to get coffee ordered and delivered home when there were people sick at home. Companies have started scheduling food delivery for patients. However, the food trays remain uneaten and plates and cups fill the sink.

How much of electrolytes can one drink? How much of advice can one take? What food works for one person does not work for another! Everyone’s taste buds require different foods to help them recover! Typically the phones start getting switched off and folks tend to prefer remaining and recovering in isolation (virtually as well).

What is the food that has the most stamina while someone is recovering? Vegetarian or Non-vegetarian? Who are the ones who deliver to close-by locations? Sometimes the delivery cost is 3 times the cost of the actual food being delivered. However, we cannot get bogged down by the costs. Who monitors what food has and is actually being consumed?

Challenges can be overcome when we work together. However, whom can we work with becomes the first question when folks at a specific location are down. Gathering the local contacts who live close by, who are aware of local protocols and who can provide insightful and useful information when needed, and can suggest relevant folks to help becomes critical.

Being open to form new networks and relationships and inclusive enough to use the information provided by them helps a great deal!

During our times of need, old friends, classmates, neighbors, office covid cell/helpdesk, office managers and colleagues, relatives, hospital staff, food caterers, security guards, home cleaning help.

Realized that

• It helps to have a common contact list for emergencies!
• We need to be willing to reach out to ask for help!
• Stamina comes from the food we eat – learning that helps!
• Mothers seldom follow what they ask their kids to do. Having someone else take care of them helps!
• Proper food, rest, sleep and laughter work like a miracle
• Not connecting to internet helps the patient in their recovery, puts everyone else far away under stress!