In the Shadows: The Orphans COVID Left Behind

[babylonsister]

CORONAVIRUS
In the Shadows: The Orphans COVID Left Behind
As the omicron variant begins to sweep the U.S., the country is still grappling with the devastation of waves past—including the upended lives of more than 140,000 children. Four Florida siblings who lost their single mom open up about their heartbreak, their day-to-day struggle, and their shared sense of resilience.
By Rita Omokha
December 15, 2021

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Nelson and his 15 coauthors of the Global Reference Group on Children Affected by COVID-19 were the first to call attention to this new group and coined the term COVID orphans. Similar to when children became orphaned during the AIDS epidemic, the title is born out of the need to classify those dependents who lost one or both parents and suddenly find themselves without someone to provide the basics children need to thrive daily: security, food, shelter, and love. Florida, where Tré and his sisters have lived since they permanently migrated from the Bahamas in 2007, has nearly 8,000 children who have lost a primary caregiver to COVID—the third-highest number nationally, behind California and Texas.

That number is now rising at a faster rate, Nelson says, while local and federal governments remain largely mum on the issue. “Most of us, since March of 2020, have been obsessed with people getting sick and people dying,” he says, “but the hidden cost of the pandemic that no one was really thinking about is the sheer number of kids who have lost parents or grandparents or primary caregivers.”

At one point Dawkins worked two jobs and lived paycheck to paycheck, and the family had bouts of being unhoused, but she always made the small things seem simple. Now, those small things have become daunting for her surviving children, from creating grocery lists and buying the right kind of milk to perfecting the morning routine and making dinners everyone enjoys. Then there’s the matter of missed school assignments and keeping a roof over their heads. The federal government has flooded schools and communities with COVID emergency aid, but no one has created a clear road map or stimulus plan for this demographic, now or for a post-pandemic era.

While kids his age stress over dating apps or where to go for spring break, Tré sits at their marble kitchen island divvying up light bills, car notes, and grocery and gas expenses. Since their mother’s death, it’s been a whirlwind of checklists in a rinse-and-repeat survival cycle. An informal network including friends, neighbors, church members, school staff, and some strangers have stepped up to help however they can.

This first week in November is no different: figuring out school drop-offs and pickups, adjusting to new jobs for the two eldest, getting permanent custody of the two youngest, figuring out how to get Social Security survivors benefits, looking into FEMA’s COVID funeral assistance, and worrying about the Cigna bill for their mom’s hospital care in those final days. The siblings keep moving, mourning, one breath at a time, together.
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“It hurts, like a physical pain in your chest,” Tré says. “This feels so wrong; it just doesn’t feel like it should happen. Like, why, God, why does it have to be this way?”

more...

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/12/in-the-shadows-the-orphans-covid-left-behind

[brer cat]

1. They are having to grow up too fast,

and living paycheck-to-paycheck is very stressful. They are at least blessed to have people helping them manage this difficult time.