A 12-year-old, who along with her parents contracted Covid-19 last month and recovered since then, has written a letter of hope and courage that is making waves on social media.
Daughter of a businessman and a teacher, Darjeeling schoolgirl Ashnaa Pradhan sent her letter to various Facebook pages of portals such as Darjeeling Times and The Darjeeling Chronicle, where her honest and spirited narration has struck a chord with readers. In The Darjeeling Chronicle alone, Ashnaa’s letter received over 4,600 likes throughout Sunday.
Ashnaa said she decided to share her experience to send out a positive message to people scared amid the second wave of the pandemic.
“Here is why I am sharing my experience. If I, a- 12 -year old girl, can fight Covid, so can you all. So it’s my humble request that if any of us are going through hard times, the best medicine is we all have to stay positive.”
The Darjeeling girl’s letter states the names of well-wishers and family members for helping out her family, including Sikkim chief minister P.S. Golay, who arranged Remdesivir for her father when the medicine ran out of stock in Darjeeling district.
“It all started on 16 April," Aashna writes. “My mother got sick. She had fever, headache, body ache basically all the symptoms of covid 19. Side by side my father also was not well. So I was the only fit person in the house. I had to take on all the responsibilities. I had to attend my own classes, look after mom and dad, cook whatever I could cook and so on.”
“…But, then from Wednesday evening I was also not feeling well, even though I was working on my (school) project,” she continued, and wrote that she did not want to stress out her parents but finally had to tell them.
“When none of us were getting any better, we decided to go get our covid test done. So we went to do the test on 24 April and we all tested positive. We started home isolation from that day. It was the worst thing that ever happened in my life," she wrote.
Things took a turn for the worse on April 28 when her father’s condition worsened and their family friends arranged an ambulance and took him to the Darjeeling district hospital to give him oxygen, and then he was taken down to Siliguri where he was hospitalised.
She admitted that she and her mother were “very desperate and stressed out", but then “I kept motivating mom telling her that he would be ok and did not lose our hope".
He got better for which she thanked “all the medical staff, who took very good care of my dad".
She writes how, during his hospitalisation, the Covid medicine was out of stock in Darjeeling, but they got supply from Sikkim.
“We thank everyone for all for your support, unconditional love, and all the prayers... How can we ever thank you,” she wrote, adding “special thanks to our almighty”.
Ashnaa has a word of advice. “…it’s my humble request that if any of us are going through hard times, the best medicine is we all have to stay positive.”
Online commentators to this letter are hailing the girl’s maturity and courage. Priya Nembang Rai, among the hundreds to comment on the letter, wrote: “Thank you nanee (child) for inspiring us to be strong and positive.”
Another commentator, Uttam Jhawar, said more such stories should come out in the open. “God Bless…We need more and more ppl who’ve recovered to come out and share their experience …and bring in some HOPE,” Jhawar wrote.
