Zhu Meng’s wish for 2020
On the first day of 2020, Zhu made a wish that she could be rich in the coming year, which was soon demoted from the top of her wish list. Now, her wish is quite a simple one – to be physically healthy and enjoy life.
“Several days ago, after an abrupt decision to go home, I saw my parents at home. That was the first time for my family to sit together at the table without wearing face masks and have such a happy moment after Wuhan was locked down on January 23,” Zhu recalled. It was her 111th day working on the frontline against the COVID-19 pandemic. Before she would video chat with her parents every day, and they would expect to receive her message after she walked out of the inpatient area. She would send pictures of her three meals in their WeChat family group chat.
“It is the most blissful thing to be together with the entire family, healthily,” said Zhu, stressing how much she cherishes quality time with her loved ones.
Zhu didn’t want to leave the hospital through the worst of the outbreak. “This is the place that I risked my life for,” she said.
She said that the team members are close with each other and there have never been any intrigues or conflicts among her colleagues, especially with an excellent team leader Zhang Dingyu, director of the hospital.
Zhu calls Zhang “super director.” “It feels like we are covered and taken care of with Zhang leading us during the fight,” she said.
Zhu also admires her colleagues, saying that a colleague’s father passed away during the epidemic, but she chose to stay on the frontline, taking care of other people’s parents.
In the future, Zhu wants to be a better nurse as she was impressed by medics supporting Hubei from other provinces. They are professional intensive care teams and skilled in using all the equipment for severe patients such as ventilators and dialysis machines. “I must study hard to improve myself in aiding and caring severe and critical patients,” she said.
Another wish of hers is to pass the exam which enlists her to the government payroll as she planned to take the exam in March, which was postponed. She said she will keep trying.
Zhu also wants a certificate to prove that she had been fighting the COVID-19 pandemic on the frontline. “It is meaningful for me and proves that I was there in the frontline, which I can show my descendents that I fought the battle against the novel coronavirus in 2020,” she said.