“Ever since COVID has come, I have been very worried for my old parents. My father, 68 years is a diabetic and my mother, 60 years, is an asthma patient. This makes both of them very vulnerable to the virus. Since the beginning of March, my parents have isolated themselves and since they stay very near to my house, I was doing grocery shopping for them. I used to buy stuff and drop it outside their door. Even when I went in to talk to them, I would mostly stand at near the car and talk to them, maintaining all social distance.

Once the lockdown happened, they gave leave to their domestic help and did not keep anyone. I am very stressed about their safety, health and well-being. At this age, my poor parents are doing everything right from sweeping, washing to mopping. That day my mother slipped while washing the bathrooms. Thankfully my father just grabbed her in time and saved her from having a bad fall. When I reprimanded her for it, she reasoned with me that the washrooms need to be cleaned sometime and so she was doing it. Everyday they are working and are getting very exhausted and have started to have aches and pains and there is not much I can do about it. Once, in a while, I used to go and clean their house for them but now ever since the virus has spread so much, I have stopped meeting them at all. I worry what if I am an asymptomatic carrier and I make them sick? 

My father has not been feeling well for sometime--the heat is bothering him too much. Moreover lack of exercise from his walks is disturbing his blood sugar levels. That day when I spoke to him on the phone he was so disturbed and upset that he said that he rather die than live like a prisoner in his own house. It worried me to hear him think like that. Because of his increasing sugar levels, my mom has modified his diet which he is hating. And they have frequent arguments over it. He was fond of fried stuff and would balance out a binge with some extra kilometers of walk and now he is only eating food that is almost boiled and devoid of any ghee etc.

My mother on the other hand is tired of everything--my father’s cribbing, house work, not being able to meet me and my children, not being able to move freely, not being able to cook interesting food and eat it. When I asked her that she should cook and eat what she wants, she despondently told me that what’s the point of cooking anything special when there is no one to eat it..if my kids were going to come over, she would have cooked it but now there is no joy.

I feel as if more than anything both my parents are losing joy in life--they are leading dull, monotonous, insipid lives...my weekly visits to them used to cheer them up, but now even that is not there so they have nothing to look forward too.

I keep worrying what is coronavirus extends for another year or so...my parents would surely lose interest in living and pass away quietly...our of loneliness and sadness and not the virus. If this continues, the depression, loneliness and the blankness of life will get them sooner or later," shares Manisha Dabral, a resident of Delhi.

(Pic credit: freepik)