PATRICIA SUN

Realtor

SPENT THE PANDEMIC WITH FAMILY

To enjoy the rainbow, one must endure the storm.

This quote adequately expresses our family’s experience with the current Covid-19 pandemic and resulting government mandate to stay at home.

Everything seemed to happen so fast. One minute my husband, Dan and I were enjoying a romantic trip eating and touring our way through Madrid and Barcelona. Days later, we found ourselves amidst the heart of the pandemic racing through Europe. We had left Toronto on March 6, and returned March 14, seemingly on the last flight from Madrid to Toronto with the Spanish government locking down the entire country.

Our son Jeff had called while we were at the Barcelona airport to tell us he was packing up his bags at Western University and coming home to Toronto with his roommates as his classes were immediately suspended. Our daughter was in the middle of her March Break service trip to Peru. While we were slightly concerned, there weren’t many cases of Covid-19 and their scheduled flight to return home was in a couple days. We would soon realize that this was not the case as Peru suddenly declared martial law, and all flights in and out of the country were suspended. Amidst frantic calls to every government representative we could think of, I contacted the media and did an interview for CP24. The story garnered much attention as 19 children between the ages of 15 to 17 were on a school trip with only 2 teachers and not able to get home. Most alarming to us parents was when the company that organized the trip began to float the idea of “leaving them there until the crisis was over.” Thankfully through much government lobbying and media attention, the Canadian government began organizing repatriation flights to bring our children home, amongst many other Canadians in similar situations.

However, after such a dramatic beginning to the past few months of Covid-19, it has evolved into a beautiful gift of family time together. Our children are older, 15 and 18, so they spend much of their time away at school or out socializing with their friends. The government imposed order has seen all of us grow even closer and develop new baking and cooking skills. My husband is a dentist and has morphed into a bread baker and avid cyclist. Our son organized the entire kitchen and pantry. Our daughter loves to bake different desserts. My mother, separated from her American fiancé, has been staying with us. This has given our family a priceless experience to spend time with her and learn more about Asian cooking. Normally we don’t cook Chinese cuisine, finding it more time consuming and difficult to master. However, with unlimited time on our hands, we’ve managed to make our own soy milk, BBQ pork, and handwrapped sticky rice dumplings. I have discovered a new found passion for Korean movies, and books from Chinese authors.

So far, we have celebrated 2 birthdays, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Despite all the sadness from lives lost during the pandemic, our family is thankful to be healthy, safe and most of all, together.

“To enjoy the rainbow, one must endure the storm. ”