3 Boys and a Transplant

3 boys and a

By Alicia Curtis, Simply Hers Magazine TRANSPLANT

LOVE ALWAYS WINS

Please contact your local Red Cross to see how you can help continue the fight against heart disease.

Wow is an understatement. I, like many others, am finding myself in a very different time right now. Our world is filled with uncertainty, anxiety, and stress. As COVID-19 rapidly goes through our country, our cities, the places that feel safe to us, we can’t help but sit back and ask ourselves why. I had a huge reality check as I was trying to process the new norm for my family.

I have three little boys who would be enjoying the start of a long baseball season that is now canceled indefinitely. Their father, who is battling on the front lines of this illness, has not been around them for over a month now. Friends who took worries away and gave us breaks from reality are now seen from a computer. News is filled with political disagreements and COVID-19 horror stories. This disease is starting to hit closer and closer to home as we know people who are being diagnosed. Quite frankly, I feel as if I’m living in my very own sci-fi movie, and I know many others feel the same.

The reality check hit me when I was having a day of feeling super sorry for myself. I couldn’t take the loneliness and emptiness another second. That’s when I realized that feeling felt all too normal. I have lived this nightmare before. My kids have had their lives turned upside down, and everyday things we took for granted were swiped from beneath us. We spent almost two straight years in a form of quarantine. Our life revolved around hand sanitizer and hospital masks. Every time we stepped out of the house, we feared for what it could bring. Holidays were spent in a hospital with hundreds of other sick kids fighting for their lives. I missed my bed, I missed my family, and I missed my whole family being together. More importantly, I wanted Oscar alive and healthy.

Cue reality check . . . . When I thought things were bad, I could still get away to my favorite restaurants for a quick break. I could walk around the mall for a minute to take my mind off of the horror that we were facing. My family brought the holidays to the hospital and we celebrated Christmas and Thanksgiving together. Friends visited and brought gifts and laughter to make time go a little faster. Oscar’s brothers could come and visit him whenever they wanted too.

Right now, these families are facing a true horror. Not only are their loved ones in the hospital, but they are alone. Kids who are sitting in a cold hospital room can only have one parent with them. Families who are struggling have no way of getting away, going out, counting on friends and laughter to help them get by.

Friends, I encourage you to love. To simply love. Take politics out of this, take away negative feelings, and just love. The world is a really tough place for a lot of people right now, but it could be worse, so much worse. Do something kind for others, kind for your family, but, most important, kind for yourself. We will get through this because love always wins. Sending prayers to the many families battling this illness today and every day.