Leila Amien has shared her experience of COVID-19 with friends, saying it was the scariest diagnosis to receive but that her parents have been a great support.
Cape Town, South Africa (22 June 2020) – Leila Amien recently shared a video of her parents who are doing everything to make sure she is ok. Leila was diagnosed with COVID-19 and has been forced to isolate away from her family.
Thankfully, she has been able to get isolated at home in a room detached from the rest of the house. It has a large glass sliding door that her parents have used to communicate and cheer her up. Leila has been recording their antics and shared them online.
She wrote a detailed account of how they are coping through her diagnosis and recovery. While COVID-19 is scary, it is nice to see the lighter side of it.
COVID-19 versus My Parents.
I was recently tested positive for COVID-19. And while it can be one of the scariest diagnoses for many people and families. I want to give you guys a bit of hope and laughter through my experience.
It’s not a laughing matter at all but my parents were absolutely hilarious while coping with my diagnosis and if any piece of hope and laughter comes from my experience I’d like to share that with you guys.
This is a funny take on my COVID experience to lessen the fear in any way possible.
I live at home with both my parents, my dad who is over 60 and even though he denies it, we can confirm it because we have his ID document at home.
It’s true when people say that we may be losing our logic and common sense because of COVID-19 and I can confirm this because my dad video called me from across the house WEARING A VISOR.
We have this trolley at home called the “COVID trolley” and every day 4 times a day, they knock on my door, push this trolley packed with food in my room and sprint back out again and every day I try to time it perfectly to open the door while they’re still putting the food on just to watch them run for their lives.
Related Story
Every day my parents insist that I open my curtains for communication and while my dad entertains me with dance moves, I can see my OCD mom scanning my room looking to see if it’s clean.
Every hour they knock on my door and window to see if I’m alive and every time I answer they ask me why I’m not sleeping.
I lost my sense of smell and taste so I called my parents to line up the potent foods for my own COVID-19 smell test. My dad excitedly brought Niknaks and my mom brought crushed garlic and ginger.
This is when I really missed my brother. Because I truly feel like one of his farts would’ve killed the virus instantly.
The funny part though is before I told my mom that I lost my sense of taste, her food presentation was emaculate. However, after I told her about my loss of taste, it seemed like the food standards had deteriorated because she knew I couldn’t taste it anyway.
I often wonder if she thought my eyesight deteriorated too. Because suddenly the coriander garnish disappeared too.
I have the two most positive parents by my side. They reminded me almost daily that my mental health was as important as my physical health. My mom forced me to sit outside in the sunlight and soak up the rays.
I truly believe that my mom even tried to talk the virus out my body because I’m not joking when I say my mom came into my room the one day saying “Leila, I’m not scared of Corona. I won’t just kick this virus up its arse, I will moer it”
And she did just that. She moered it out my system with vitamins. My mother pumped every vitamin known to mankind into my body and often stood by my window to watch me drink every last sip.
I need to let WHO know that the Amien household has tried every herbal and home remedy out there and can confirm that it doesn’t help much but it gives parents peace of mind at least.
I kid you not when I say my mom wanted to tape an onion to my chest so I could heal faster (see video at the end)
Even when I found out that I was positive, my moms response was “ okay but I knew you had COVID when you said my food had no taste”
And my dads comment, “ Ya but look how you look, of course you have COVID”, suddenly they were doctors and COVID whisperers.
My parents have not once shown sadness or fear from the moment I was sick right up until the moment I no longer had symptoms.
Even though I know every part of their being was frightened, they tried to show me what bravery looked like in the face of a very uncertain condition.
God, I have never seen so much strength and bravery in two people before, especially two old ballies.
Parents are the best of carers.
And mine were the true frontline heroes in my battle.
I received daily check-in’s, calls, messages, video-calls from my family, friends and their parents, my parent’s friends, my mom’s gym buddies, my dads work colleagues, my brother’s friends, my work colleagues, high school mates and people I haven’t spoken to in years.
All to tell me that I’m in their prayers.
Naturally, my parents had to be under quarantine too but it was amazing to see how family and friends stepped in to do grocery runs for us, dropping bags of food, sending home-cooked meals, sending more prayers and well wishes than I could ever comprehend.
It’s amazing how limitless kindness can be.
This post and the videos of my parents were supposed to be light-hearted and give you all a bit of hope in a very uncertain time.
I joke, prank and mess around a lot, but COVID-19 is very real and hardly a joke.
It is very scary and I pray that no one experiences it.
There are mild cases but there are also very serious cases and you just never know which side of the spectrum you may fall in. It is absolutely terrible, frightening and heartbreaking to know and witness what this virus is capable of.
My biggest fear when I found out that I contracted it, was the fear of possibly infecting my parents.
Face masks are easily the most annoying accessory to our closets these days, but what you may not realize is that by wearing a mask you are looking out for the next person in your immediate vicinity, you’re looking out and protecting a complete stranger standing next to you in the grocery store.
Maybe I’m crazy but there’s something heroic about that. You’re wearing masks to protect each other.
We still need to fight for each other, and make sure that the virus doesn’t come into contact with us but particularly the elderly, those with co-morbidities or immune-compromised individuals.
So here I am, 2 weeks down the line, healthy, happy, slightly more lazy than before but I can’t blame COVID for that.
I wish I could give you guys more hope than just this silly post with videos of my parents but today I’m feeling hopeful “for indeed with hardship, will be ease”.
And as it is so perfectly put in our National Anthem:
“Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrica.” – God bless Africa
(and the rest of the World)
Leila’s account of her diagnosis and recovery is heartwarming and a reminder that everything we are going through, we are going through it together, for each other.
Take a look at the hilarious video here.
by 