Chande Leigh Adeogba

Wed. July 1, 2020

The first thing I did when I received this notebook was pull it out of the plastic envelope was smell it. I
wanted to smell and inprint in my memory the beauty and humanity of each of you and myself. I've
always been like that. Smells create strong memories for me and this experience this sharing memories
with you is now forever imprinted in my memory. When I was invited to share my thoughts I was filled
with so much gratitude. I am honored to share with you and read year stories as well. Ever as write this,
my eyes swell with tears of appreciation and love for all of humanity.
To tell you the truth, I think COVID-19 hit my family back in October last year. We each took turns
getting that cough that never seemed to go away, that tiredness, high fever and general malaise. Mine was
harder to recognize (back then, none of us even had heard much of COVID-19) because it started on (in
January) a trip to Jacksonville, FL to visit my foster sister who'd just delivered my niece prematurely at
26 or 29 weeks, I forget which now. She'd told me that she'd quit smoking, drinking and doing anything
that could harm the baby during her pregnancy. Yet baby was having a very hard time thriving and
insisted on being born almost 2 months before her time. When I arrived at my sister's house, the first thing
I smelled (there goes my smell thing again) was cigarette smoke. I wanted to deny it, but clearly it was in
the house. I felt a tinge of disappointment, then judgement, then understanding and compassion. I know
my sister was doing the best she could. After spending the first night in her bed, I woke up with a gnarly,
annoying cough that I couldn't shake. Not long after, back of heart/chest pain and eventually a fever. This
illness lasted 2-3 weeks. And in that time, my beautiful niece, she died of respiratory of failure. My whole
family was broken-hearted and we mourned for long time. I’ve never seen a casket so small. Eventually,
my illness went away and I was free. My other sister and my son also got sick. Since Quarantine though
we have been very much in the love and faith of being loving and close with each other. Our family is
spread out and we text, zoom, Skype and send lots of Amazon Prime to each other. My partner, I and our
children are big into our health and fitness and believe the masks and gloves only make us more afraid. So
we do not use them. We are in full faith that “This too shall pass." And we are all the stronger for it. We
believe that ‘social distancing’ as a coin phrase is kind of like "weapons of mass destruction” or “terrorist
attacks”. After a while, you just accept it as a fact without really considering what you are saying.
I believe a more powerful way to adjust to the times is with "Responsible connections". This allows us to
be discerning and not afraid. Our children still hang out with those who they played with before the
coronavirus became known. We still visit our closest friends. We are respectful of the space people need
and we also understand that "Humanity is in the Community." It all boils down to continuing to have a
loving experience of life in the face of so much FEAR. I'd like to continue to be a beacon of light, love
and FAITH during this time and for as long as I live
Chanda Leigh Adeogba
I love you.