When the call came that my wife was diagnosed with COVID-19, the shift in our home was immediate, and this article was the furthest thing from my mind. However, putting a real face, a real family behind what is truly going on in South Dakota with the COVID-19 pandemic was something I felt was important.

My wife really wasn't sure where exactly where she contracted the virus, but it wasn't surprising that it would eventually hit.

With more than one percent of the state actively positive when she tested positive and nearly 1.5% of Beadle County actively positive with COVID-19 on October 24, that she or another member of our family would be exposed and eventually fall ill to the virus had become more of an eventuality given her work as an in-home daycare provider as our four children left home every day to spend their day at a public school.

Not to mention, her husband was off to public meetings and sporting events on a daily basis.

To say that the exposure that our family had on a daily basis to the virus would eventually lead to a positive test in the environment was an eventuality is putting it lightly, if a bit fatalistic.

Day 1 - Saturday

Receiving the news Saturday evening flipped an immediate switch. Our family was watching children's television while two daycare children were present. Those children's parents were called immediately.

My wife immediately contacted every daycare parent to let them know the news. I went about contacting my editor to let him know.

Then she and I shared with the children that they would not be going to school for the next two weeks and, worst of all for them, Halloween would not be happening in any traditional way in our household, whether it be trick-or-treating or handing out glow sticks at our front door.

That was a tough discussion.

Day 2 - Sunday

After video church that our family has enjoyed since March, the children and I headed out to shovel the snow off the driveway and sidewalk. The kids then enjoyed a snowball fight, though they were bummed by the instruction that no neighborhood friends could be included in their play, even if one were to happen by.

We called the Beadle County test center to inquire about getting tested and were told that due to the recent spike in the area, asymptomatic persons were no longer being tested, even with exposure to a positive case. We were encouraged to quarantine and monitor for symptoms, at which point a test would be considered.

My wife and I also discussed financial assistance options for the loss of her business for two weeks. Knowing that multiple grants had been available for daycare providers at one point, she put together a list to research on Monday.

Day 3 - Monday

My wife spent nearly four years with the Center for Independence, and she loved her job. Frankly, she'd still be there were it her choice, despite my concerns in how she was consistently shamed for not covering co-workers' absent shifts, even with our young family.

However, when CFI chose to eliminate her position in early March with an end date of the end of the month, she attempted to change minds above her but resigned herself to finding another job once her job was done. Little did she know that a pandemic would sweep Beadle County by the end of the month, and on top of that, her house at CFI would bring in a COVID-positive resident, exposing her and requiring her to quarantine at the end of her job.

The paper had reduced one day of printing due to loss of advertising revenue as a result of the pandemic and in order to ensure food was on the table and being able to work at her previous house while under her current exposure, but nowhere else, my wife willingly picked up part-time hours for CFI.

This was a mistake.

She began attempting to apply for unemployment while she tried to find a job in an absolutely dried-up employment market in Beadle while the county was in an ordinance-enforced reduction in employment and movement. It coincided with our children also being home from school, so she was looking for a position that worked with my work at the paper.

CFI denied her unemployment, stating that she willingly left employment, rather than the fact that her position was eliminated. The state sided with CFI, stating her willingness to work part-time for CFI showed her availability for work, but there was not a shift available at CFI available for months that worked with our family.

To make ends meet, she chose to begin a dream that we had discussed as a five-year plan. We enjoyed providing foster daycare when we were foster parents. She long thought she would enjoy working as an in-home daycare provider.

She began to recruit clients and had a remarkably busy group of kids coming before school started, and then the majority of those kids started school, so she went to recruiting again.

She's worked hard to finally build up her clientele to a full client list, so losing two weeks of work is a big deal not just for her but for a dozen sets of parents who have lost their daycare provider.

Reaching out to Greater Huron Development, she was referred to the loan program, which is not what we were looking for to cover a two-week absence. So once again, a loss of income in our home due to the pandemic.

The other phone call that she made was to contact one of the kids' medical providers with current symptoms that she and my other children have been showing (along with me). They contacted the testing center, and we were fast-tracked to get in line for Monday morning testing.

The test for the children is multiple dabs around their nostril, and that's a good thing, as I don't think our children could have handled deep nostril intrusion.

Dr. Joseph Carr came to take my test and my wife remarked that I took the test much better than she did.

We heard by the end of the day that all four children were negative. My test results would not be in until Tuesday afternoon, at the earliest.

Day 44 - Tuesday

Four children aged eight and under, three dogs, two adults, quarantined together. Within 48 hours, already none have a bit of sanity left!

The day began with typical work for the paper, while the kids and my wife worked on cleaning toys in the house in a deep clean.

I gave my son a break from cleaning toys and utilized his assistance on a garage project in the afternoon. You see, I am an organized person in that I put things back where they belong in my tool chest when I use them. My wife, well, not so much.

When my wife and I work on a project together, it's anyone's guess whether things get put back where they're supposed to, even if I do attempt to get them back where they belong.

Building bunk beds, repair on the clothes dryer, installing a new sink, and other general repairs around the house had led to the wrench/plier drawer in my tool chest becoming empty somehow, even though I own two sets of wrenches!

We began working through the mess, and significant progress was made when a break was required because daddy realized that he hadn't eaten any lunch, and it was now mid-afternoon.

It was during this break that I received the call to let me know that my test Monday morning had come back positive.

(Insert words not suitable for printing.)

The irony of testing positive is that if I were to quarantine with my wife not isolating, I would have to quarantine for 14 days after her last day of being potentially contagious. Instead, I could return to work sooner by testing positive if I am symptom-free without medication at the end of 10 days!

"So, what does this mean for my children," I asked the kind woman from the call center.

The response was not what my children wanted to hear:

"Well, if you're both masking but not isolating, they will have to quarantine for two weeks after you are both cleared as symptom-free. That will mean the soonest they can return to school is likely three weeks from now."

"...and my wife's daycare, I'm assuming she can't re-open until the children are back in school?" I asked.

"That's correct," was the reply.

Well, crap.

Crap, indeed.

The only reason I was allowed to even test is that I had increased frequency of, well, crap starting at the end of the previous week. I felt normal otherwise, and I even thought it was potentially due to a bad supper Wednesday, as I felt bad immediately after, had the digestive stuff starting that evening, and I'd been fine other than digestive issues since.

So, a ham and cheese sandwich gave me COVID.

That's how we spun it to the kids for humor, anyway. Obviously, being in contact with my wife was likely what infected me, but taking precautions at work had led to no additional notifications needed as I talked with the call center representative about those who I was in contact with Thursday and Friday before isolating beginning Saturday.

Day 515 - Wednesday

My wife opened the morning with a phone call to each of the children's schools. Two are at Buchanan and two are at Madison. Needless to say, that sent the day into a significant spin.

The call to Buchanan led to my wife being told that with the school district's new "healthy students in school" program, students can return to school even while parents are actively positive with the virus. We were genuinely concerned, to say the least, about the idea of children returning to school while a parent was active at home.

Calling Madison School clarified information on the new program to some degree, as we were told that our children would be able to return immediately upon my wife and I no longer exhibiting symptoms and being cleared as no longer actively positive with COVID-19. While that was still not what we had heard from the call center the day before, it was at least somewhat more logical.

This led to a long discussion about the legality of re-opening my wife's daycare. Could we have the parents sign a waiver if our children are still at home or if we aren't following CDC guidance with the children and sending them to school immediately once we're deemed recovered? Beyond the legality, would that be ethical?

That discussion was left open as I retreated to my home office to partake in the weekly South Dakota Department of Health press briefing, where the state's epidemiologist reiterated the CDC guidelines for returning to work, school, or public gatherings, stating that “according to the CDC, isolation should occur for two weeks after the last interaction with an infected person.” I also got to listen to multiple members of the press get after KELO’s Angela Kennecke for dominating questions during the briefing, telling her to “stand down.” Ah, entertainment.

My garage cleaning project had to be finished solo now that I knew that I was COVID-positive, and that’s where I spent my next chunk of time, along with putting a new rear wiper arm on my 20-year-old van. Satisfied with my success in re-organizing things until the next time my wife has a project to complete when I’m not in the house, I headed upstairs to prepare for the Beadle County COVID-19 Task Force briefing happening via YouTube in the evening.

My wife and I chose to have our children stay up to watch the briefing, as they are more than a little informed on the virus, and they have been since the beginning, asking good questions as I have covered the virus since early March with daily updates to the paper’s website and Facebook page along with an article in each edition of the paper. They could likely rattle off as many facts on the virus as most adults that have followed the issue throughout the year.

The briefing opened as expected with a plea from the medical community to mask, citing the raging numbers in the community. It was when the panel got to the question and answer session that we were left dumbfounded in our home. The original information that we received from Buchanan School…well, that was the right information, and it was not just reiterated by Superintendent Terry Nebelsick in the briefing, but it was supported by multiple members of the medical community.

The new “healthy student initiative” would include sending children to school, as long as they had no symptoms, even if they were going home every day to be exposed to a parent or sibling or live-in relative who had an active case of COVID-19. With the asymptomatic transmission of the virus extremely high and the stories my children have told of their activities on the bus, even with the safety measures put in place, it has seriously put a question for my wife and me not just when, but if we want to return our children to the Huron School District.

After that shock, sending the kids to bed and settling in for a replay of “This is Us” seemed a good way to calm our minds…or not! Dang show, anyway!

Day 6,096 – Thursday

One of the things no one really discusses about COVID-19 is that the symptoms that come on don’t “ease” on as in many illnesses where you have a drip of a runny nose one day, then your sinuses are stuffy the next, then plugged the next.

With COVID, symptoms are HERE! I got cold symptoms Tuesday night, and it wasn’t an ease into things, it was immediately coughing, sneezing, a constant need for Kleenex nearby – right now!

Wednesday morning, out of nowhere, my body went into a level of muscle and joint pain throughout my body that I’ve not experienced since college football walk-on workouts where I swear the strength and conditioning coach wanted to have someone bleed or break by the end of every workout session.

I took a shower Thursday morning and let the warm water pound on my back for a while, and that felt good. Shaving was good, until I attempted to shave my head as usual, and reaching for the back of my head engaged all those incredibly sore muscles in my upper back. My wife noted that I had done some nicking. It’s not as if I’m going anywhere.

Another thing about COVID not often mentioned is that it brings out the best of those who really care for you and your family. Our neighbors when we moved into our home more than five years ago recently moved out of their home, but the two of them had been tremendous neighbors over the years, even being great with our children as we went through the process of foster care and adoption. When they found out my wife and I were positive, they offered to do anything they could to pick up groceries or other items we needed and did so multiple times.

They weren’t the only ones who offered to help or did help, either. It’s hard not to feel the community come around you when it’s so present among family and friends when there’s a need.

Day VII – Friday

If I start counting the days like Super Bowls, perhaps that will make them seem more appropriate, seemingly lasting a full year in between.

One would assume that after a week of frequent sitting on the porcelain throne as the primary symptom for COVID, I’d have some weight loss to show for it, so I weighed in this morning – one whole pound down. One.

Granted, a lot of that is because I am moving like a 90-year-old man without his walker right now, so each step is measured as to whether or not it's truly worth taking, but that was disappointing!

This morning was also the second child that had to have a second test done as we’ve now had two children get sick over the course of the week. Both threw up, and that simply could be an early run of the flu bug, but at this time in our house, it’s not worth taking risks. We’ll find out the results on the first one tested sometime today, while the one being tested today will likely be Saturday or Sunday before the results are back.

So, my wife took her test on Friday, one week ago. We’re still three or more days before either she or I will be cleared as recovered, and whether or not the tests for the two girls come back positive, the kids will be home all week. There will be plenty more to come…