But…
Back in January, Shane and I were on a college road trip in California.
Our first college visit was in Orange: Chapman University. We strolled around for several hours there, then stopped for lunch, and headed on to our next college.
Two days later, California announced a coronavirus case – one of, if not the first – in Orange, California.
I know what day it was, because we were watching TV in the hotel all day, so we saw the news.
We were watching TV in the hotel all day because … Shane had a fever. He felt achy all over and declined to go to Six Flags. The fever was short-lived, and he ended up not having a lot of energy the next day, but he was fine to travel back home.
It’s not likely that Shane contracted coronavirus that long ago, right? And without the cough, it’s unlikely that he had it – but who knows?
But…
Two weeks later, Dylan was sick. He had a fever for at least three days. In fact, the entire campus was sick. He dragged himself to the health center, where they determined that he did not have the flu – but they didn’t tell him what he did have.
He developed a cough a couple of days later – a bad one. Even with his reactive airways disease, it seemed unusual. It was a low, deep, angry cough.
More than three weeks later, he was still coughing. Nobody bothered testing him for coronavirus because, of course, coronavirus headlines were still a few weeks away. No one in Tennessee suspected anything more than a very contagious flu-like virus spreading through campus.
All of the backtracking in the news lately has got me wondering: did both of my kids have it already?
Part of me thinks, yes! I think they did! And then I feel happy, because they both lived.
Another part of me thinks, probably not. Wouldn’t we have known? And then I feel concerned again.
And probably the most rational part of me thinks: Dylan probably had it. Shane probably did not. But who knows?
I am going to try feeling happy today. After all, regardless of what they had then, they are not sick today.
As always, and especially lately, that’s the important thing.