Aymia Browder COVID Diary #2
By Aymia Browder
Do you remember the 2009 film Avatar? Well in the beginning of fall semester 2020, I received a call that startled me, it was my 81-year-old adoptive grandmother Jackie. She called me from the hospital saying that she had tested positive for COVID-19. She begins to tell me that she called the ambulance because she fell, and they transported her to the hospital to conduct some test. Grandma Jackie said that she does not have any symptoms of the virus, and she does not feel ill. Immediately my thoughts reflected to what I witnessed on the news, where people were not allowed to stay in the hospital with their relatives.
Just as fast as I began to think the worse, I had to counteract my first state of mind with the right state of mind. I suddenly drifted off into a daydream and I thought of the film Avatar. There is a segment of the film where the human character Grace was shot when trying to rescue the blue skinned creatures called the Omaticaya clan. Her partner Jacob decides to take her to the Tree of Souls, where the Queen and the inhabitants of the land would collectively reverence their goddess Eywa. The inhabitants of the land believed that if they would call on Eywa then she would hear them and heal their land. Grace’s friend Jake believed that Eywa could help too. In the film Grace dies because she didn’t get to Eywa sooner, but at the end of the film Eywa helped Jake by transforming him from a human to a permanent avatar, so that he could help protect their land from future terrorists.
I did not call Eywa, but I called every well-wisher I knew. My prayer warriors called out to our creator and began to pray and wish Grandma Jackie into good health. When she was admitted she had a slight cough and she complained that she had some pain in her leg. During her 7 day stay in the hospital she and I talked on the phone every day. Each day she began to sound like her energetic self again. A few days later Grandma Jackie was released from the hospital, and she requested that I bring her some fried chicken wings. At first, I was frightened to go inside of her house, but I remembered that in the movie Avatar the humans wore masks to shield them from the poisonous air on the planet Pandora. Before I entered Grandma Jackie’s home I put on several layers of masks and enough clothing to suffocate myself, and I took her the chicken wings. She gave me a stare as if I looked insane, and she shook her head with a grin on her face. I talked to Grandma every day for the remainder of her quarantine. I made sure that Grandma Jackie had everything she needed, but I can honestly say that it did not seem like she really had the Coronavirus. From Grandma Jackie’s experience I learned that this unknown virus may affect everyone differently. I also learned that there is a chance to receive a false reading from the Coronavirus test, and if you have a sinus infection it could trigger a false reading. One thing we all must do is continue to take precaution, and if you happen to run into a little snag try to think positive until you have no other choice.
I was able to relate the film to what I was experiencing when I got the call from Grandma Jackie. I remembered that the Omaticaya people came together to wish for Grace’s soul to be transferred permanently into the avatar, so that she would be healed. So I called my people to come together wish for healing for my Grandma.
