“I was working as a location coordinator for a movie shooting here. We wrapped out a little early because of the Coronavirus. After we wrapped, I was exhausted and starting feeling funky. I saw spots on my tonsils and thought it was strep. I got a strep test and they swabbed for me for the flu. She wouldn’t test me for Corona because I didn’t have a fever and I wasn’t having trouble breathing. That was about March 24, and tests were limited. That night I went home and started getting a fever. I woke up with strange dreams and hallucinations. My dogs sleep with me and wouldn’t come near me. The next day I felt better but had a headache and my fever was 102.

My fever went down to 99.9 and stayed there for a few days. I was better for almost a week and a friend of mine tested positive for COVID and we had been together. Since my friend tested positive, they gave me the test. I tested positive for the antibodies, so they swabbed me. A couple of days later, they called and said it was positive. I was shocked. Fortunately, I was already self-isolating.

When I was diagnosed, the CDC said that after 72 hours of being symptom-free you aren’t contagious. Now they are saying it is up to 28 days. My dad was in the hospital for heart failure. I couldn’t see him in the hospital and haven’t seen him since. He is recovering now.

The antibodies are in my body. I donated plasma last week which seems to be working better at helping victims than ventilators. My plasma and its antibodies can help save three or four lives.

I was supposed to be going to a yoga school for a month in India. It was going to be 7 hours a day of yoga school, meditation, and reflection. But I don’t think you can get more reflective than spending 32 days by yourself. I was also going to holy cities in India, then to South Africa to photograph a cheetah being re-wilded with The Endangered Wildlife Trust, then a month in France.

I was a photographer for the Press-Register and Mobile Bay Magazine and I am trying to figure out how to use my photography to do charity work because I want photography and philanthropy to become my full-time focus again. My mantras right now are cling to nothing, but push nothing away, and not my will but Thy will. I have learned that you can plan, but those plans can quickly change.

I grew up in Mobile and moved to Charleston for college and adulting and moved back here in 2008. I am a co-owner of the Haberdasher bar in Mobile. We had 17 employees and it has been tough being closed down. Things are going to change and what is the right way to open up?

A lot of people don’t know someone who has the Coronavirus so it doesn’t feel real. When you have it, you feel like a leper with a scarlet C on your chest. There is a lot of fear. I hope people can work together and get through this with compassion.”