Doni Miller: Over one million cases and twenty thousand deaths.

Ohio is riding a wave like no other COVID 19 has crept into our lives and it feels like a never ending story.

I'm Doni Miller.

And today, we bring you a taste of our new normal stories from our community about those personally affected and ravaged by this pandemic.

There is evidence that people in racial and ethnic minority groups are more likely to live in areas with high rates of COVID 19 infections.

Studies show that in Ohio, black people hospitalized with COVID 19 make up thirty one point eight percent of the state's hospitalizations for the disease, far exceeding the 13 percent share of the state's black population I shared some time with five families of color right here in Toledo.

These are their stories.

Suzettes' story is a difficult one to hear.

She contracted COVID 19 early in the pandemic and still suffers from many of its effects.

Her faith and love of family are what sustained her.

She shares that story with us.

Suzette you had to be one of the earliest Covid patients in this whole pandemic.

You actually got the disease.

Was it in March?

Suzette Cowell: In March.

Doni Miller: In March?

How did you know?

Suzette Cowell: So for three weeks, they said I had a sinus infection, but the headache kept getting worse and they changed the medication and it just kept getting worse.

And so finally, I decided I needed to call the Covid line I couldn't take it.

The headache was so severe.

And I called the Covid line and they told me that where to go to have a test.

Doni Miller: And you did?

Suzette Cowell: And I did.

And they said it was negative.

Doni Miller: The test was negative.

Suzette Cowell: The test was negative.

I didn't actually test positive until I was on the ventilator for four days.

Doni Miller: That's the first time that you tested positive?Suzette Cowell: I just remember being so sick.

I had never been that sick in my life.

I just needed somebody to help me.

And, you know, the doctor came in and I had told him that I had tested the day before negative.

And he said, well, you know, let's see what's what's going to happen here.

So he looked at me and he said, you know what I need to do?

You won't live through.

He said, because you're too old.

Doni Miller: So the doctor said, I'm sorry.

It sort of took my breath away for a moment.

He just said he said to you that what he needed to do to you would not survive because you were too old.

Did he tell you what that was?

Suzette Cowell: The ventilator.

Doni Miller: OK. Suzette Cowell: Mm hmm.

Doni Miller: But you eventually ended up on a ventilator.

Suzette Cowell: I ended up on the ventilator.

Doni Miller: Let's talk a little bit about that experience.

Suzette Cowell: So he told me he was going to go home and think about what he was going to do.

Doni Miller: The doctor.

Suzette Cowell: The doctor.

And he said he went home and he tried to eat.

And for the first time of his life, he heard that inner voice and the inner voice, told him to come back to the hospital and take care of that lady.

Mm hmm.

And he said he didn't pay any attention to the inner voic because that was really the first time he ever heard it.

He said that he tried to go to sleep and it just wouldn't let him go.

So about one o'clock, he shows back up to my bed.

He says, I never heard he said, you must be a celebrity.

And I'm looking at him as sick as I am talking about.

And he said, because I heard that voice for the first time in my life.

He said, so I believe that you got to be a miracle.

He said, I'm going to put you on this ventilator.

And he said, but I need you to call.

I'm giving you ten minutes to call the people that you love and tell them goodbye.

Doni Miller: Really?

Yeah.

What was that like when you heard that?

Suzette Cowell: You know, trying to.

How do you, it was my son's birthday.

How do you call him and tell him goodbye?

You know, this is it, right?

But he he got right.

You know, he got in the bed with me and I made my phone calls.

And most of the people in my family didn't even know what a ventilator was.

Right.

So this was, you know, totally a new experience for all of us.

Doni Miller: But you you being told that you had ten minutes to call.

Suzette Cowell: the people that you love.

Doni Miller: The people that you love to say goodbye.

Doni Miller: Out of you huge family.

Huge family to say goodbye.

That must have been the hardest thing you've ever had to do.

Suzette Cowell: I did.

And then the ones that didn't answer the phone because, you know, I was in the morning, I sent them a text and told them to pray for me, that I really needed prayer because I was really, really sick.

Doni Miller: He he put you on a ventilator at that point.

The doctor did.

And you said the most amazing thing to me when we talked about this.

You called it your 14 days with God.

Suzette Cowell: Yes.

Doni Miller: Your 14 days with God.

What what?

Talk about that.

Suzette Cowell: Well, you know, most people don't know.

But you can hear you're on that ventilator and you're paralyzed.

But you can hear.

And so all I could hear was that beeping of that ventilator.

So you imagine lying there for 14 days and just that beep constant.

And I it was me and God I.

Because, you know, as sick as I was, I asked him to take m because you just you can't explain how you feel.

You're just sick all over.

And I heard the inner voice say, you is not your time.

Doni Miller: One of the things that I remember about your experience was that for those 14 days, nobody talked to you.

Suzette Cowell: No, to be there and not see anybody in your family.

And it was, you know, no touch, no hugs, no phone call, no nothing.

I thought that I had been kidnaped.

Hmm.

Because there is no way as many kids as I had.

Nobody called to say, Mom, where are you?

When I, I just felt like I was in seclusion.

I didn't I didn't understand what happened.

Someone told me it was like a Job testimony when everything got taken away from me.

Doni Miller: Right.

For 14 days, everything that I knew in my life was gone Doni Miller: Everything, Suzette Cowell: Everything.

Doni Miller: Your your journey through Covid was, I think, particularly difficult because you got it so early in this whole cycle of this disease.

And so there wasn't a lot known at that time.

What do you remember the most?

What will what do you remember the most about being sick?

Suzette Cowell: I remember that God probably was tired of me calling his name.

Doni Miller: Prayed a lot, Suzette Cowell: I prayed a lot, I prayed a lot.

I actually felt prayers.

I I knew I was going to be OK because the voice had already told me.

This is something that you have to go through, but it's not your time.

Doni Miller: You were unable to walk Suzette Cowell: Yes.

Doni Miller: Early?

Suzette Cowell: Yes.

Doni Miller: Early on.

Suzette Cowell: Yeah.

Doni Miller: That was one of your symptoms?

Suzette Cowell: Yes.

When I went to the hospital, before I got admitted, they gave me a zpac.

And no one knew at that time that zpac'sdidn't work with the virus.

And so when I woke up the next morning, I couldn't walk.

And so when I got out of the hospital, I had to learn how to walk.

Doni MIller: How is it now?

Suzette Cowell: Oh, it's suffrages.

One leg, Doni Miller: one leg.

Some for that one leg, you had a little post-traumatic stress disorder happening, too, as a result, did you?

Suzette Cowell: Yes.

Lately, I would say in the last month, I can hear the nurses and things when they use when they came in and they would say, wake up, Suzette, you know, wake up.

We got to give you this.

We got to give you that.

And so the way my doctor explained it to me is that my body is starting to heal.

And because of that, that's why I'm getting all those memories back.

Doni Miller: Is it hard to remember?

Suzette Cowell: It's painful.

Yeah.

Doni Miller: What what's painful about it?

Suzette Cowell: Because I was so sick.

Doni Miller: You were scared?

Yep.

I was sick.

And there was nobody there.

I mean, to be sick and not have anybody that you love.

Yeah.

There was traumatic.

Yeah.

Doni Miller: What what do you remember most about this this journey?

Is it that that you were alone during most of it?

Suzette Cowell: You know, most of us take life for granted, just like you get up in the morning.

You think you're going to come back home.

Right.

But when everything changes with you in that, once you leave home, everything that's normal to you is gone.

So it you know, it just it makes you look at life a whole totally different.

Doni Miller: And people need to know that for you, since you caught you actually contracted Covid in March of last year, that these symptoms still persist beyond a year.

Fourteen months now, 14, 15 months now.

And you are still struggling with weakness?

Suzette Cowell: Yes, with heart palpitations, brain fog.

One of the thing I did forget to tell you that when my mom got Covid, two of my brothers got Covid, my sister in law got Kovner.

They all went down and they're all having those same issues, same issues.

Doni Miller: Are are yours getting better?

Suzette Cowell: Some days.

Doni Miller: So inconsistent way better.

OK, what would you like to leave people with if you could have people take anything in the world away from this time that we've spent together this morning?

What would it be?

Suzette Cowell: Take this very seriously.

It's not only about you is about the people that you love.

And like I said, whatever precaution that you need to take, you need to take it right.

You don't want this to come through your family.

Doni Miller: Twenty six days of his life where he remembers nothing.

And that's only one of the effects that Covid had on Maynard Porter more than a year later, he continues to battle the impact of the illness.

He struggles to breathe.

Hospital visits her, many with no end in sight.

This is Maynard's story.

Maynard, you've had a very difficult journey with Covid, and it's lasted a long time.

Can you take me back to the time that you first heard that you had Covid and how you felt about that?

Maynard Porter: I got diagnosed December 1st of twenty twenty, and I had been to the emergency room the night before because I wasn't feeling well.

I had a few behind the heads, behind the symptoms, you know, and I thought maybe some sinus issues had been going on.

They took a test.

They called me back December 1st, told me I was Covid positive that point.

I prayed, I prayed.

I made everybody in my life, my family members, my loved ones, aware what was going on.

Then that evening of December 1st, I went to the hospital.

Doni Miller: It sounds like you knew some things about Covid.

Maynard Porter: I had been very diligent about keeping myself sanitize, keeping my distance, wearing a mask, been very diligent.

So I was also surprised that I had developed Covid.

Doni Miller: Yeah.

Any idea where it came from?

Maynard Porter: I believe it came from where I worked.

Doni Miller: Do you?

What happened next?

Maynard Porter: From that December 1st, I end up going back to the hospital that evening.

I developed a gasping for air.

I developed a cough.

I developed a fever.

I remember them giving me oxygen December 1st.

And I don't remember anything from that.

I woke up December twenty seventh on my fiftieth birthday and my daughter singing happy birthday to me and crying at Flower hospital.

So through that process, I've realized and I've learned that from December 5th through January 12th, I was ventilated and trached .

Doni Miller: And you have no memory of that?

Maynard Porter: I have no memory of that.

Doni Miller: Do you remember?

What is the very last thing you remember?

Tell me again.

Maynard Porter: I remember going to the emergency room December 1st, having some breathing complications, coughing in them, giving me oxygen.

Doni Miller: And that's the very last thing you remember?

Maynard Porter: That's the very last thing I remember until until December 27th, my good news birthday and my daughter crying and singing happy birthday to me.

Doni Miller: So about twenty six days?

Maynard Porter: Yes.

Twenty six days.

Doni Miller: With no memory of any.

Maynard Porter: No memory of anything.

Doni Miller: What have people told you about that twenty six days.

Maynard Porter: My daughter has told me some things.

My brother has told me some things about treatments.

They gave me different things they were doing.

I guess I talked to my brother.

They put the phone up to me.

December 5th, and that was when they were ventilating me.

And they asked me and my brother said that I said, yes, I want to live.

Doni Miller: My goodness, yes, I want to live.

Maynard Porter: But I don't even remember that conversation with my brother.

Doni Miller: No kidding.

So it sounds like you had some drive even while you were unaware.

Maynard Porter: Yes.

A lot of drive.

Yeah.

Doni Miller: Yeah, Is that is is that what's gotten you here today?

Maynard Porter: You know, I've been a very faithful man in the community.

I've been, you know, born and raised Catholic.

And I know, I take my faith very stro I have loved ones, families, you know, and I have a beautiful will and drive for life.

And I try to promote that to everybody I meet.

And as I've gone through this and when I got off the hospital January 15th, I felt the love from the community, from my loved ones, from everybody that I worked with, people that I've basketball officiated with for thirty one years in the community.

Just I just felt the overwhelming love and support.

Doni miller: So I know you have a daughter that you ar very, very proud of.

And she's in the Navy.

Maynard Porter: Yes.

Doni Miller: Right now, And the doctors actually called her in to come in and see you.

Maynard Porter: Yes.

Doni Miller: While you were ill What did your daughter say about the impact of this journey that you were on to her?

How did this affect your child?

Maynard Porter: Um, I haven't seen my daughter since January 10th.

She had to go back.

Yes, but we've talked and she just says, I love you, dad.

And you know, I haven't had a chance to embrace her.

Yeah, it's hard.

You know, and tell her how much I do love her.

I tell her every day.

But still, they embrace someone who's been there for you through all of all this.

Yeah, I have a very loving brother and I'm seven years older than him.

And we hadn't seen each other since Thanksgiving to January 15th.

And we.

When I got out of the hospital January 15th, the nurses were just there and they started crying as we hugged and kissed each other.

I was like, that's my baby brother.

Doni Miller: Right, Absolutely.

Maynard Porter: You know, he's still here with me in my corner We talk about these things sometimes.

And I could see him tear up my brother's baldheaded ,Yeah, it's no hair.

So I get up and go kiss him on his head and tell him I love him.

Doni Miller: So this is clearly making you emotional.

What what what is it that's making you feel this way Maynard Porter: Just thinking about the journey, thinking about the journey, not in a selfish way for myself, but what my family, what my loved ones, the people that care about me have gone through.

I would have never put this on anyone.

Yeah.

I'm not a selfish man.

I'm not a vindictive person.

Very loving.

Right.

And I have a lot of conviction for life.

And I would have never put any of this on anybody intentionally.

Doni Miller: Right.

And I think I think we don't always think about how this disease has pulled the lives of our family members and our loved ones into it.

Yes Along with with impacting having an impact on our own lives.

Would you agree?

Maynard Porter: I do agree.

Yeah.

You know, and I'm very proud to say that I'm fully vaccinated.

My brothers fully vaccinated.

My sister in law is very, very, very fully vaccinated.

My oldest niece is 12.

And she had developed Covid at a time and pinkeye, and she's been vaccinated almost a week now.

She get her vaccination.

Doni miller: Good for her.

Maynard Porter: And I'm very proud, you know, very proud, because those are the loved ones that I'm around every day and get to see them.

And I don't have a hesitation of seeing them being around them because, hey, we're all in this together.

Doni Miller: Right.

So I want people to hear a little bit more about your journey.

So.

Can you remember the time in this process that you were most frightened?

Maynard Porter: I was most frightened.

The scariest was February 12th.

I've developed a condition where my airway closes on me.

Yeah, February 12th.

I woke up probably around 12, 30, middle of the night.

Couldn't breathe.

He had a hard time gasping for air.

I said OK, Lord, you know, going through this again.

Try to drink a bottle of water.

Was able to do that, but still could not catch my breath So I end up calling nine one one EMS to come get me put me on oxygen.

I was struggling to breathe and I had to call my loved ones and let them know which the MS called them and let them know what was going on And that was very scary, because I have never experienced that.

I grew up having asthma.

But I haven't had an asthma attack in thirty five years.

I haven't been on an inhaler in thirty three years.

Now, to this day with this, I have an inhaler in my pocket and I have a breathing device that I carry around everywhere with me.

Oh, wow, is that?

Maynard Porter: That is my nebulizer.

Yes.

And it's has medication in it that I have to have just in cas this airway starts to close up.

Doni Miller: Are there other other symptoms that I'm sorry, other issues that you're facing still as a result?

Maynard Porter: I have, you know, short of breath still, you know.

Yeah.

Still stamina.

Endurance.

On a good day today, I'm seventy five percent.

Yeah, but I'm not one hundred that I used to be.

You know, if I walk more than 20 feet, I can get winded at times.

Doni Miller: Wow.

Maynard Porter: And like I said, I officiated for thirty one years.

I run up and down basketball courts and have had no issues.

But, you know, here here this is.

Doni Miller: So Maynard, if you as you think back on this journey that you have been on.

What is it that you will remember the most?

Maybard Porter: I will remember.

The love that I feel, the love, the support, all that that I've felt, you know, in the community from my loved ones and everything as this is happening because there was a good portion of it that I don't remember.

Yeah.

You know, and I want to be thankful.

You know, I had very awesome doctors.

My doctor Bomana.

Yeah.

My doctor Amali, the surgeon who performs the opening of my airway.

Fantastic.

All the nurses, all the skilled people that have worked with me.

God bless you all.

Wow.

And thank you for helping me be here today.

Doni Miller: Your gratitude is about having made it through.

It sounds like.

Maynard Porter: Yes.

Yes.

And I still have a journey to go yet.

But I'm thankful and I'm hopeful and I'm optimistic that it will go well.

Doni Miller: Yeah, that's amazing.

That's so good.

What would you like to leave people with if you could leave them with any final thought from you What would it be?

Maynard Porter: Be careful.

Be safe.

This pandemic is for real.

It's nothing made up.

Hmm.

And please get vaccinated.

Doni Miller: Barely into his 20s, Trey Jones has lost his mother, his grandmother, and has become the breadwinner and parent to his much younger siblings, all because of Covid, his experience with this illness will break your heart.

Thank you, Trey, for sharing your story with us.

Trey, why don't you tell us a little bit about you?

Trey Jones: Um, I'm twenty five years.

Twenty six years out from Toledo.

I'm the oldest of five children come from a single parent home, my mom, Patricia Geronimo.

Um, her and my grandmother both raised me and my siblings.

So we pretty much grew up in like a traditional Mexican family with them and cooking with them on Sunday and stuff like that.

So I took an interest in we're all different.

Me, I took an interest in cooking.

So just this past year, I went out to like I was in Stovepipe where I was out in California working at in the Death Valley out there.

I was cooking out there, and then the pandemic hit.

And so I came home.

And then after that, I went out to Colorado and I was cooking out there at a dude ranch.

And so I came home and basically just taking care of the family.

And then in November, I fell ill. Covid, Around my birthday, so my birthday's on the 26th.

So I was quarantining from the ten days after that and I found out.

So I really didn't.

And I came back in October.

I got that in November.

So I got a month to spend with my mom, my grandma, before we all started getting sick.

And so I caught Covid in November, they followed it ri after and they both passed away So just losing both of them left me with them, I don't have no children myself so I have a ten and twelve year old now.

They are Deanne and Deandre and like it's just it's different and trying to turn to my whole life upside down over a year.

Over some months.

I keep saying that happened over.

She passed away January 10.

It's frightening.

But I the whole process of it was like I knew my mom would want me to keep our family together.

So I and I've always been I've always been able to just step up.

And so that's just what I did.

And it's frightening.

But I think in my head about like the future, watching them walk across the stage when they graduate and then off to college and stuff like that and just our future together, that's what I'm holding on to and looking forward to, and that's what helps me get there.

Doni Miller: So this this illness, this Covid illness has affected you and your family in ways that you've never thought of, that you never thought possible?

Trey Jones: Completely put my whole world upside down.

Doni Miller: What about you in this?

How are you?

How are you feeling in all of this?

Trey Jones: Um, lonely, I guess, because I went to being just myself to a single parent of two.

So I it's just me.

And of course, I had my family there for me.

But it's just hard the day in and day out with the children in school.

Doni Miller: And what's the hardest?

Trey Jones: Um, not being able to call and get like reassurance from my grandma.

My mother, I lost my grandpa in Twenty seventeen.

Those are my parents like those three.

And like that's just that's the hardest part.

And not be able to call them and get that reassurance anymore.

Doni Miller: Yeah.

What what do you say to yourself that keeps yourself going?

Um, how do you how do you get up every day and and do this with the the loss of those people from from this illness?

Those people that were so important to you.

Trey Jones: I just do I guess.

I just do.

I dont't really have an answer to that.

Doni Miller: It's alright.

Trey Jones: I just do it because I told you the kids don't have a father our mother is gone.

Our grandparents are gone and that I have to I don't have no other choice, you know, and it's not unfair to me, I don't think, because like, they love me, they respect me.

And I know if I raise them like I would with my own children if I had, I know that it's going to pay off in the long.

And and I remember coming out to my mom back when I was 19, and it being the scariest thing in my life then, and her just right there by my side, just making sure that I was happy.

And that's what I want to give to them, you know?

Oh, yeah.

The most difficult part is definitely not being able to hear the voices.

I play voicemail's over and stuff just to hear the say they love me.

And it's pretty messed up.

How, like some of them, we can't even see the others to us and like towards the.

So right before she passed, she knew she was like she was in the hospital.

And this is more me coming and tell you her story, because like she was scared in her last days and texting me and telling me baby I don't want to die alone, it left my brother, it left all of us without nothing, we're parentless.

We don't have nothing.

Doni Miller: And that's got that's got to hurt like hell.

Doni Miller: We don't have.

So, I mean, there's no right words people are going to do what they want to do.

But people through history should know that it wasn't no joke.

It wasn't something to take lightly.

It took lives.

And it's sad that my mother and my grandmother, even myself even though I didn't pass away, I'm still considered a statistic because like it's just sad.

It's very sad.

Doni Miller: How do you feel when you see people being careless about or not taking this seriously?

What do you want to say to them?

Trey Jones: If there's one thing I've learned over this past yea for sure, with the protest, Covid everything is that you can tell thousands of people whatever you want, but people are just going to do what they want and.

Just the main thing I'm saying is I want people to be able to just.

To be able to.

Have.

I don't know understand the loss that we've endured, you know, even the loss that we are enduring, we're still, like you said, what about my dreams, like that's something I'm still losing this present moment still.

So you just have to be more considerate of, you know, of families and loved ones that lost people.

Like I said, this is affecting everybody.

And no one really knows until, you know, you just got to keep your eyes open and be more considerate and kind and love more You know, there's so much hate in the world, so much hate and it's ugly.

And God don't like ugly.

And so just.

Yeah, just keep your eyes open.

People like people are out here trying to rebuild now, so we need more love and kindness in the world than we ever had.

Now more than ever.

So.

Doni Milller: Sicker than she'd ever been before, Bonita Bonds was certain that COVID 19 would end her life.

What if I don't get better or what will happen to my family, my son, my fiancee?

I'm not ready to die.

Those are the thoughts and Bonita's heard as she fought COVID 19.

She called it the scariest thing I've ever been through.

Ever.

Listen as Bonita shares a bit of her journey with us.

Bonita, did you know much about Covid before you contracted it?

Binita Bonds: You know, before I contracted it, it had just hit as a pandemic.

And so we knew some things I knew some things about Covid, but not to the extent that I probably should have after I started getting the symptoms.

Doni Miller: What were your symptoms?

Bonita Bonds: Doni they started out as flu like symptoms.

I had a fever.

I had the chills.

And I, I just kind of though t I was catching a cold or just, you know, the regular flu.

It never even dawned on me that it was actually Covid.

Doni Miller: When did you know?

Well, we actually got a phone call because we had visited my fiancee's family in Alabama and his dad called and said that the some of the family members had Covid.

And then that's when the light bulb went off and said, wow, maybe this isn't a common flu, maybe this is Covid.

But I you know, each day I was getting sicker and sicker And it just after the first couple of days, it just didn't feel like a regular flu.

So after we got the phone call, we started put we put two and two together.

Doni Miller: Do you remember what emotions you felt when you found out you had Covid?

Bonita Bonds: I was scared.

I was terrified because, you know, by then we had heard.

I think we got the pandemic notice in like March or April.

And I contracted mine in July.

And so I was scared.

I was terrified because I didn't know about the breathing part.

And so, you know, I was just really scared at that point.

Doni Miller: What were you afraid of?

Bonita Bonds: I didn't want to go to the hospital.

I heard all the horror stories.

You really didn't hear about people surviving.

Doni Miller: Right Bonita Bonds: Covid, you heard all of the stories about people you know, not surviving.

And so I was just afraid everything was going through my mind, my son, my grandkids and you know, I just I you don't know how to fight it.

Right.

There was really no medication that you could take that that would fight it.

And so you're just scared because you're like in a world of an unknown, Doni Miller: What went into choosing into making that choice not to go to the hospital?

Bonita Bonds: probably after the first week and a half and I still had a fever of about one hundred and five.

Doni Miller: One hundred and five!?

Bonita Bonds: And my fiancee was scared at that point.

And I was getting weaker and weaker.

And my daughter in law is a registered nurse.

And so he called her and he said, you know, I'm really scared because we can't break this fever.

By then, I had been taking Tylenol for about a week or so.

And but I kept saying I didn't want to go to the hospital because I didn't want to get I don't know.

I just felt like if I went to the hospital, I was going to get worse or get put on a respirator.

And so my daughter in law said, no, don't take her to the hospital if we can get this fever broken we got it made, don't take her to the hospital.

We're just going to keep fighting the fever.

So she was against it and I was against it from day one.

I didn't want to go, but he he just didn't and he didn't see me getting any better.

So he thought, well, maybe maybe she does need to go Doni Miller: It sounds like you were afraid that you might not make it.

Bonita Bonds: I was.

I was at one point, I would say after about two and a half weeks, then I thought, I'm not going to make it, because I could see I was losing weight rapidly because I couldn't eat and I was weak.

I couldn't walk from one room to the next.

And without I was getting out of breath and I thought, you know, I couldn't sleep during the night.

You know, it's it's it's almost indescribable.

Doni Miller: Anything like this in your life ever before?

Bonita Bonds: No.

This was the first time that I had actually been that sick.

Doni Miller: Yeah.

We are so happy that you made it through.

I know.

That was a really tough journey.

It had to have an impact on you.

Hmm.

What how would you describe that impact?

How has it changed you?

Bonita Bonds: I would say that you don't take things for granted.

You know, so often in our lives, we are working hard.

You know, it's the hustle and bustle.

We're not taking time.

I know this sounds like a cliche, but we're not taking time to smell the roses.

Doni Miller: Absolutely.

Bonita Bonds: And it has made me slow down.

It has made me pay attention to my body more what I'm putting in my body, how I'm taking care of myself.

It just puts you in a different, you know, mindset.

Certain things you took for granted.

I don't take for granted anymore.

Yeah, it was I've never been that sick before in my entire life.

I've never been that sick.

Doni Miller: And probably not that scared very often.

Bonita Bonds: And not this scared for myself.

You know.

Doni Miller: There have been some significan after effects reported as a result of Covid.

One of them is significant brain fog, memory issues.

Do you have anything like that?

Any remaining effects?

Bonita Bonds: I have the brain fog.

Doni MIller: Do you?

Bonita Bonds: You know, there, Iv'e been with the city 28 years.

Yeah, I've been doing the job that I'm doing for 11 years.

So there's things that you just automatically know.

Doni Miller: Absolutely.

Bonita Bonds: You know, because you do it all the time.

I couldn't think I couldn't remember.

I had to tell my staff, if I tell you something and you know it's not right.

Make sure you let me know.

Because I had the fog.

I could.

And I'm what you call a long holer.

Doni Miller: Are you?

So I had the hair loss.

I had the fatigue, the headaches.

My headache symptoms didn't happen until after the fact.

And I had the brain fog.

It was scary.

Doni Miller: And do you still have all of those symptoms?

Bonita Bonds: I still have a little of the fatigue and the headaches, and I still get the fog here and there.

But nothing, nothing like it was.

Doni Miller: Yeah.

Given everything you've been through.

What would you say to those folks who who have decided not to take this seriously, who have decide that it's it's a flu type thing and they can get through it?

Bonita Bonds: I would say that, you know, numbers don't lie.

First of all, we've had too many fatalities from this virus.

But I would also say if it has that hit your family yet, you're pretty fortunate.

And to think that this is a hoax or it is just like the regular flu.

There could be nothing farthest from the truth.

This is nothing, nothing like the common flu, nothing.

Doni Miller: And what would be the what would you like to leave people with?

What would you like them to know?

Bonita Bonds: I would like them to know that this is real.

And if we don't take anything serious, take this seriously is not a hoax.

I'm here to tell you, I survived.

But there was at one point I didn't think I was going to survive.

Right.

So is the real people.

And if you can do anything, whether it be wearing the mask, whether it be whether it be making sure we're washing our hands and even the vaccine, do it.

Absolutely Doni Miller: And the power of those thoughts about not being able to see your son, your only chil again, or your fiance and or your family.

People need to remember what that feels like and what that means to the people that you love.

Bonita Bonds: Absolutely.

Absolutely.

It's the scariest thing I've ever been through, ever.

Doni Miller: These are the stories of Pete and Robin Reese So you guys have been married 40 years, and I'm still trying to get over that.

Congratulations.

And that's a wonderful thing.

And you've been together like 50 years, right?

Pete Reese: Yeah.

Doni Miller: Yeah.

So when did you just know Robin?

When Pete did you know before he knew that that he wasn't feeling well, that he had Covid?

Robin Reese: Yeah, I did.

Doni Miller: I bet you do.

Robin Reese: I did.

Because he he's he's the go to guy everywhere at church.

I mean, he's just the go to guy.

And he was like low energy and kind of laying around, which he does not do.

And so I'm like, OK, something is wrong.

I didn't want to believe that it could be Covid, but I knew something was really wrong.

Pete Reese: You know, it was possibly around the end of November, the 1st of December.

And I had checked my temp and it was about, I think initially about 102.

And from that period on, I could not get my temp below one hundred, three hundred and four for several days on end.

So coupled with the excruciating headaches and, you know, just aching throughout my whole body it was probably the most painful and gut wrenching kind of illness I've ever had in my life.

Doni Miller: But you drove yourself to the hospital?

Pete Reese: Yes.

Yes.

Robin Reese: I mean, I never even knew him to have a headache.

And these were like migraines.

He was he was in a lot of distress.

so.

Pete Reese: And I kind of remember the moment before I actually went to the emergency room.

My wife, we call a doctor.

Mm hmm.

She suggested calling nine one one.

And so the emergency response team came out.

They literally asked me to step outside and they took my temp and checked my heart rate and kind of thing .

And, you know, one guy even suggested to go back upstairs and lay down.

And for some reason or another, I my primary care physician suggested that I to the emergency room because my oxygen level had dipped to about an 86.

Yeah.

Doni Miller: And when did you when did you contract this?

Pete Reese: It was probably the end of November 1st of December Doni Miller: 1st of December.

So we were pretty well into this pandemic as a as a country then.

But still, you were told to go upstairs and lay down.

Pete Reese: By One of the first one of the first responders.

Yeah.

And so subsequently, you know, I somewhere and my wife had the wherewithal to suggest that I once they saw that my oxygen level was in the 80s to go to the emergency room, and that's when things began to turn for the better.

Doni Miller: If you could if you could give a number from one to 10, 10 being the most severe.

What was your pain like?

What were how sick were you?

Pete Reese: Oh, I think possibly at the height of when all this was fully engulfed me, I would say definitely eight or nine.

Doni Miller: No kidding.

Pete Reese: And it was primaril head and my headache, you know, throughout my body.

It was it was you know, I was aching, just constantly laying around.

I mean, I didn't have enough energy to even at times feel like to get up to go to the restroom, let alone go downstairs for anything.

Right.

And she was just my wife was just totally fantastic, you know, making sure I had plenty fluids.

And the thing about it, ironically, throughout that whole experience, I never lost my sense of taste because I was putting away some grub.

Doni Miller: So you could Robin Reese: He was like nervous eating right.

Yeah.

Robin Reese: We had a we and we had one of those beds that do everything.

Yeah.

So I had turned the massager on, I was trying everything to get him out of his misery, but nothing.

Doni Miller: Nothing worked.

When Pete was at the number nine, What what were you thinking?

Robin Reese: I was terrified.

Doni Miller: Were you?

Robin Reese: Honestly, I hate to even admit this, but in my head.

I was thinking, OK, what is life going to be like without him?

Doni Miller: You were afraid he was going to die.

Robin Reese: I was because we had friends that were really, really sick.

And so I'm thinking and I had never he's never been sick.

So I thought, oh, God, this is it.

This is it.

You know, in my head.

And that's why even then I'm thinking, you know, when the when we call nine one one and they came out and I heard them say, just go back again , I'm thinking, OK, here we go, racial disparity.

Mm hmm.

You know, so I'm like, we got to get you to the hospital.

At this point, I'm starting to feel sick myself.

And so I'm like, OK, I mean, I can drive just like him.

He's like, I'll drive myself.

Mm hmm.

So he he went on and then before I could even hear what was going on with him, he had been there for some hours.

Then here comes They come and delivering oxygen.

I thought, oh, boy, here we go.

They just left it on the front porch.

And I'm like, oh, he's even sicker than I thought You know, so it was it was very scary.

Very, very.

Doni Miller: And you were starting to feel sick at that time?

I'm starting to feel sick.

I've got the headaches, the fever.

I can't taste a thing.

Doni Miller: Still?

I mean, it took months for me to get it back.

But at that point, I can't taste food.

OK, so I'm like, OK, so I'm getting sick.

Doni Miller: So, Robin, why?

Why were you afraid?

Why were you why was your your decision informed by that whole issue of racial disparity in treatment?

Robin Reese: I was thinking if I get to the if I go to the hospital, I probably will die.

That's what I was thinking, you know, like, oh, no, I just can't I can't expose myself to that.

Not only because I know Covid was there, but jus I was thinking I will be the one that they will let die.

Doni Miller: Do you think that's one of the reasons that people who look like us are slow to ge this vaccine and slow to become engaged in the system, Robin?

Robin Reese: Absolutely, I do.

And for us, we're the unique position because we have two children.

Our son is thirty three and our daughter will be thirty eight.

And neither one of them have had the shot, even though they know how sick we were and their reasons, they do not trust the system.

I have tried everything, including the mother guilt thing.

Yeah.

And what I have to be honest, in the back of my head, I have some feelings.

I mean, we took the shot because we know Covid is much worse.

But, you know, that doubt is always there.

Doni Miller: Right.

Robin Reese: To be very honest is always there.

In fact, I had a thought lastnight what if they take the shot and then something happens, you know, so it's there.

I wish they would take it.

But the doubt is there still.

I don't I don't know how to get rid of that.

Yeah.

Pete Reese: You know, my my thought when I talk to my kids about it is just simply trying, you know, and God forbid, experience what your mom and I experienced.

Right.

Five hundred and ninety thousand people didn't have the opportunity to get the vaccine.

And I promise you, I don't know statistically right now how many people have died as a result of taking the vaccine.

If there is is just probably a minute you know.

You know, number of folks that may have experience who might have like myself, some underlining issues like blood pressure and, you know, type two diabetes.

So, you know, I'm hoping, you know, that at some point, my son, he seems to be a little more open, you know, possibly receiving the shot.

And I think once they all realize, hey, you know, it's time, you know.

Doni Miller: So what would you.

You've been through this journey, you've been through it together, you know each other better than anybody else knows the two of you.

What what do you think jointly you would like?

What what would you all like to tell?

What would you like to leave people with?

Pete Reese: Get to shot.

Doni Miller: Really?

Pete Reese: Yeah get the shot.

I mean, you know, Doni, perhaps and I know.

Doni Miller: I was looking at IMrs.

Reese over here.

Pete Reese: You know, we I can recall as kids how they used to line up, you know, to get vaccines.

And I'm sure my parents perhaps had concern for the measles and chicken pot and they had to know about the Tuskegee situation.

But, you know, for the most part, you got it.

Doni Miller: Mrs. Reese that that didn't look like they were on board with that.

Robin Reese: I have I think I tell people to love harder because you just don't know.

You know, we love our grandkids hard.

We love each other hard.

We love our kids hard because you just don't know.

And that's the only way that I can exist in this bubble of fear, you know, is that, you know, I can do that.

And I probably have gone overboard because my grandkids don't want to go home right now Doni Miller: But a new appreciation, a new maybe not a new appreciation.

I mean, we all love our kids.

We love our grandkids, but maybe a new appreciation for showing them.

Robin Reese: Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Doni Miller: And showing each other how to.

Love harder, love each other harder.

That's the advice that Pete and Robin Reese give us all as we move through this pandemic.

I think that they're right.

I hope that these stories have touched you as much as they have me.

They all have one thing in common.

COVID 19 has the abilit to alter your life in the worst of ways.

You can do something about it.

You can call your physician, your health department or Covid information line with any questions that you may have.

Follow the CDC guidelines and do your research, talk to your friends and your family, and then choose the vaccine that's best for you.

Remember, you have the power to win this fight against Covid Thank you for joining me.