Today is Sunday, March 29, 2020. I have been quarantined with my wife in our home for the past two weeks. The entire state of California has also been for the most part quarantined for the past two weeks.

As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps the globe, many people either have been infected, are going to be infected, and others may escape infection.

In my lifetime there have been many scares such as major earthquakes, minor Ebola outbreaks, SARS, etc., but nothing like this. At the beginning of the crisis when it became apparent how serious this virus infection is, I heard a news reporter on CNN asking a doctor if this could be a civilization ending event. Let me repeat that, a civilization ending event.

I have heard questions like that on sci-fi movies, but never in real life. The entire world is afraid of an invisible enemy, the coronavirus.

This pandemic has made us all realize just how fragile life can be. We have been worried about getting wiped out by nuclear weapons or terrorists, maybe humankind might end with a virus like the coronavirus.

The reports of how horrendous the coronavirus illness can be  has Everybody scared. Reports of people not being able to breathe, having to be suddenly put on respirators, pneumonia, septic infections, death, it’s horrible.

My mom died on May 5, 2017, of lung cancer. When we removed her from the ventilator, she literally suffocated and drowned in her own fluids. Although she was sedated and tranquilized, it was a horrible thing to witness.

The people that are dying from coronavirus, are suffering the same kind of horrible death. I guess there is no good way of dying but suffocating or drowning in your own fluids is definitely not a way to go.

I’m quite positive that humankind will get through this, and I am hoping that our scientists will find not only a vaccine, but a treatment as soon as possible.

Right now, living normal life seems impossible as we sit locked in at our home here. I am 56 years old and have a couple of conditions that make me in the high-risk group. My wife on the other hand is not high risk, but we are both scared as hell.

The way it is going, you take your life in your hands going out just to get food. My wife told me that the last time she went to get food, the store was pretty empty, and there are slim pickings on the shelf. She told me that she was so nervous, that she was sweating. Basically, we have no choice but to go out to get food, so hopefully with masks and proper precautions one of us won’t bring the virus into our home and become infected.

Maybe mankind will learn a lesson from this pandemic. However, I doubt it. What should happen, is that all nations, and human beings should learn how-to live-in peace after something like this, because we are all subject to being infected and dying from this nightmare coronavirus.

I have no doubt however that once we get through this pandemic, that some if not all human beings will return to normal. Hopefully I will be wrong.

I wish I could tell you that everything is going to be okay and to be brave, but I cannot. I am nervous as hell just like everybody else. One thing I am learning to accept is that all we can do is our best to avoid becoming infected by exercising social isolation, proper handwashing, and staying at home.

Although my wife and I are worried about becoming infected, what is going to happen is going to happen no matter how much we worry. All we can do is just get through each day and hope to return to normal soon.

I Imagine what it would be like to jump in the car, to go to a restaurant for dinner, to walk on Main St. in Huntington Beach, to go to the gym, and to just live like we used to do just a few months ago.

I pray all of you get through this okay. I am praying that someday soon I will look back at this article and remember what a nightmare this was. I guess it can be worse, it can always be worse.

There are some amongst us who don’t have money for food, do not have a place to live, and they have been ordered to socially isolate. What to do?

I want to take this moment to thank all of the brave doctors, nurses, medical staff, store employees, truck drivers, and anyone who has to go out and work in the midst of this crisis. May God be with you, and keep you, until we can all get back to normal.

For those of us who live through this life will never be the same. We will all have a new appreciation for life after this.

By Norman Gregory Fernandez, Esq., March 29, 2020