Quarantined:
Couple looks back at cruise ship experience,
PARADISE >> A year ago today, Stephen and Michele Smith were at Miramar Air Force Base after being transferred there from the Grand Princess cruise ship which floated off the coast of California just a year ago due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the last year, the couple has returned it to the ridge, where their business, Ridge Builders, has been helping Camp Fire victims rebuild their homes.
They’ve also seemingly had COVID-19 strike all around, but avoid getting the virus itself.
But that was after the couple had meant to take a two-week vacation only to see it turn into five weeks away from their home.
One year later, the couple looks back at their time on the ship, their stay at the Air Force base and their return home.
The ship had been on its way to Ensenada, Mexico, when early one morning the captain informed the passengers that they were headed back to San Francisco.
The crew tried to explain why they were headed home and everyone was going to be asked to shelter in their rooms.
That quarantine was sort of a soft one as they were allowed outside in short 30-minute periods. When the ship came into the Bay Area, it began to sail in rectangular patterns at the time. They were able to see the doctors and nurses on the ship to test the passengers and crew that showed symptoms.
But soon after that, Stephen Smith said the order came down to stay in the rooms.
“That’s when they confined us to our rooms,” he said. “They knew then that something was going on and said that you do not leave your room — period.”
On March 15, they were sent to Miramar to be quarantined for another 14 days. At the time, Michelle Smith didn’t think that was warranted, after spending about that much time quarantined on the boat.
But one year later, she now sees the value in being quarantined for those two weeks because they were on a plane with passengers who had not been tested. In fact, the Smiths didn’t get tested until they were on the base. While on the plane, one of those passengers was coughing, and that caught Michelle Smith’s concern.
“We sat there on this plane for six hours; it was horrible,” she said. “Now I can see why they did the 14day quarantine because with those people for nine hours, either in a plane or a bus. Somebody was thinking.”
After 14 days at Miramar, they got a rental car and drove nine hours to Paradise. When they got home, he took a photo in front of the Paradise sign. And since then, they have been helping Paradise rebuild from the Camp Fire.
In that time, two of their daughters have been infected with the virus — both with minor symptoms — but despite being around them for Christmas, Michelle and Stephen Smith didn’t get infected. Then at the office, the office manager got the virus but once again, the couple escaped getting the virus then as well.
That forced the Smith’s to close the office for a month while they cleaned it up to ensure it was clean and safe for the customers who they said are mostly elderly. It seems in that last year, COVID-19 has bounced all around the couple and they have been fortunate enough to avoid it.
“Here we are a year later, and it’s crazy to think of all of that happened all over the world, that’s when it all started,” he said. “We were at ground zero of it. “
Contact reporter Rick Silva at 530-876-3014.