Coronavirus Stories. Post yours here. Support and encourage each other

[vivid_idea]

Hi Emmy, welcome to the forum. This is a great place to meet people and share your thoughts and troubles. Everyone here is very understanding and we all have some idea about how difficult it is to love someone who you are unable to be close to physically.

Definitely during these hard times it makes the difficulties that much more acute. I am sorry that your first meeting had to be postponed. That’s really rough and it must feel so frustrating and heartbreaking for you both. This won’t last forever, and you will be able to plan a trip again. In the meantime, vent to us all here as much as you want. And feel free to send me a PM if you want. I’m happy to chat It’s true that it is often impossible for those in our real lives to really relate to what we go through. LDRs are pretty unique.

[Christophe516]

Presently, I live with my (almost)80yr.-old mother(I wish I lived with my SO). Both my mother n' I fall into the HRG. Because of HBP. BUT, My mother is the one freaking out. She watches political coverage on it, hourly. I got a P100 face mask. Because, I don't trust the (U.S.)government recommendations for the general public. I am not going to use a handkerchief.

I have enough (physical)health problems from birth. I don't need the daily HRG reminder.

I was going to visit my SO, earlier this month. We jointly cancelled. Thankfully, No plane reservations had been made.

[OhioJim]

A bit of good news to share.

Effective June 1, the quarantine in Manilla, Philippines will be downgraded, so my hopefully my SO will be able to finish what she needs to do, with regards to getting her mother out of the hospital.

Her mother was about to get out of the hospital when they went on lockdown. That is the only thing keeping my SO from returning to the USA.

So maybe sometime next month we will close the distance?

[Christophe516]

A bit of good news to share.

Effective June 1, the quarantine in Manilla, Philippines will be downgraded, so my hopefully my SO will be able to finish what she needs to do, with regards to getting her mother out of the hospital.

Her mother was about to get out of the hospital when they went on lockdown. That is the only thing keeping my SO from returning to the USA.

So maybe sometime next month we will close the distance?

I heard about that(the lowering of the lockdown, in Manila), congrats.

[Enric]

A bit of good news to share.

Effective June 1, the quarantine in Manilla, Philippines will be downgraded, so my hopefully my SO will be able to finish what she needs to do, with regards to getting her mother out of the hospital.

Her mother was about to get out of the hospital when they went on lockdown. That is the only thing keeping my SO from returning to the USA.

So maybe sometime next month we will close the distance?

I also have my so in Manila, though I don't know when international trips will be allowed again.

I wish you the best. I hope everything goes well!

[Enric]

This reminds me slightly of my fiance. He's endured a long time living alone with no nearby neighbours. His work is casual, so never guaranteed. He gets no welfare, as they cut him off. He often has little to no money, and last summer he was surviving on apples from a tree, as he had no other money or food. I couldn't help him then either, as my own finances weren't stable and I had no account or card.
It's bad enough knowing that he suffers mentally, without him close to starvation as well.
He is in a better place now, but he's still far from comfortable.

Thanks for your support. I've also had to cope with many difficulties to find jobs. Only temporary, bad paid, without a real contract... the worst was being robbed after finding a job in another country. Now things are a little better but not great. I've been able to send a bit of money to my SO. We know we will have to struggle a lot.

[OhioJim]

I also have my so in Manila, though I don't know when international trips will be allowed again.

I wish you the best. I hope everything goes well!

I was about to post when I saw yours.

As far as I can tell, international flights are allowed. At least I have read nothing that prohibits them on non-Philippines carriers.

What I was going to post....I have read that now you are required to have a travel pass and a health certificate for domestic flights. It is not clear that it is needed for international flights. It is also not clear if they are needed for ground travel within the country, such as going from one province to another. My SO is actually in Cavite Province, just south of Manila. Her mother is in a hospital in Manila.

I read where it took one person 2 weeks to get a travel pass and health certificate. Told my SO the other day that every time I get excited about her finally coming back, something happens to crush that. One disappointment after another.

[Andrea]

Hello everyone, this is my first time here.
My SO lives 8 hrs away (if we drive). I moved to this new city for a better job opportunity .
The plan was that within a year he would move here, but when he finally got a chance at a job it got canceled because of the disrupted social context our country started to live (Chile) but he would still catch a flight or a bus to get here. Now with all this covid thing we can only drive, which increases the costs of every visit. We have only seen each other twice this year.
Now I feel sad all the time and phone calls or video chats make me feel even worse.
I feel very depressed and he thinks that my feelings for him have changed because I don't seem as bubbly as I just to be when we talk. I have explain my feelings and thoughts but I don't think he can understand. I feel guilty for feeling sad.

[DirkJanV]

Well, I took a leap of faith and booked a ticket to fly to Bangkok in July. All hope is based on Thailand opening up the borders for foreigners again and without quarantine obligations. As Thailand needs the income fro the tourist industry, has only had few cases and casualties, the expectation is that the travel ban will be lifted July 1st. Tip for anyone flying from Europe: at the moment many airlines offer for rebooking for any ticket booked up to June 30st in case of Covid-19 related travel problems. Also tickets are quite cheap (specially Lufthansa). My SO booked a flight to Europe for September well below the normal rates as well.

[Sas]

I am new to this group and have struggled with no one really understanding what my SO and I are going through because of the Covid border closures and travel restrictions. We have been doing long distance between Australia and Toronto for almost 2 years which has been incredibly difficult. We only had 1 year together before he had to move for work as he was only here temporarily for a project, and I had to stay in Australia because of my son and work.
We had never gone more than 12 weeks without seeing each other despite the distance and we were almost at the end of the separation. My SO was moving here, we were planning our wedding in July and getting everything together for our visa application. Now Australia has closed its borders indefinitely, even citizens are legally unable to leave the country. Canada’s borders are closed to me as well. I just feel so sick and sad everyday, sick with worry, having no control or certainty over our future and all our plans brought to an end.
I don’t know how we are going to manage being separated for the foreseeable future, it is excruciating. I am trying to stay positive and hope for the best, but it is so difficult and no one understands.

[DirkJanV]

Hi Sas, Hang in there. The closed border situation will be temporarily. They will open again. Here in Belgium the borders opened again after being closed for 3 months. Travel is still restricted but also that will change as well. It will be a matter of time before you can travel again. In the mean time hang in there. You have made it so far and over time it will be just a speed bump.

[Sas]

Thank you DirkJanV, I appreciate the support and positivity. I hope you get to Thailand soon! Australia has been so strict with the border closures. It has managed to keep the virus out to a large extent because of the closures and being an island, and they talk really tough about keeping strict border closures well into next year, it frightens me so much to even imagine it.

[Sas]

Sorry to hear what you are going through Emmy, so true that people just do not understand the day in day out anxiety and sadness of being apart from the one person you want to be with. I understand what you mean by the loneliness of it. Hopefully things are looking better in SG, it is such an international hub they will be keen to reopen. I am trying to not to look beyond each day or it gets very overwhelming.

[OhioJim]

Another thing to worry over!

Last fall my SO lost her passport. So she started the process to get a replacement, which can take several months. Since she has no phone she has to either use email or physically walk to the embassy.

The replacement should have been at the embassy the first part of March, right when the Philippines went into strict lockdown.

Things were starting to open up again there this month, so last week she went to the embassy to inquire about her passport. Public transportation was not fully operational yet, so she had to walk the last part to the embassy.

Well, there was a protest going on over something, and she had to walk past it. A policeman stopped her and asked her what she was doing, and asked for her identification papers. Of course she had none (lost, remember? and going to the embassy to get them).

As a result, she was charged with something and has to pay a 50,000 pesos fine (about US $1000), or do community service for 4 months.

I called the embassy and talked to an agent there. They have no record of the arrest (but they should have a record of her applying for the replacement passport) The police are supposed to notify the embassy whenever they arrest a US citizen, but maybe they didn't believe her because she had no proof. And she certainly wasn't walking around Manila carrying 50,000 pesos. I don't know if she even has that much available.

The agent said that the next time she contacts me to find out just where she is being held, but it is 3 days now that I haven't heard from her. She has to get the police to let her use a computer to contact anyone. She does have an uncle there that she tried to contact but he is not very email proficient.

I'm trying to keep busy but it is hard. I keep waiting for my phone to jingle, with a message from her or a call from the embassy.

I feel so helpless and frustrated! If it wasn't for this pandemic she would be here enjoying our time together. It seems that whenever things are looking good there is always something that comes up to crush it.

[OhioJim]

Another thing to worry over!........

Problem solved! At least this one.

My SO found someone to bring money to pay her fine, so she is out of jail now.