Dear Yuri,
A week before the state of emergency was proclaimed in Bavaria, I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.
The moment he was born I changed because my new goal in life is to make sure that he gets to live in a world where there is love, respect and happiness. And in a world that is not destroyed by us.
We were lucky, my husband got to be there at the birth and even our immediate families got to meet him. And then all of a sudden the world stood still. I had this tiny human being with me and I wanted people to meet him, have friends over to chat with. But I couldn’t, it wasn’t allowed and I was scared for my son to maybe catch the virus.
Having a baby can make you feel isolated, having a baby during a pandemic makes you feel lost, alone and depressed at times. But staying at home is the best I can do for my baby boy right now. I want him to discover the world with his own eyes and have adventures with friends. And I don’t want him to only know being home all the time for the first few years of his life. Because that is what we’re facing if we don’t stay home.
So for my baby boy and so many others. For the children who don’t understand what’s going on and who want to go out and play with their friends, see their grandparents, go to the park. For the grandparents, aunts, uncles, parents who long to see these children but aren’t permitted to.
That’s who I stay home for. And that’s what’s keeping me going even when I feel like I’m losing my mind.
Because all we can really do in this situation is act from our hearts and make sure our kids have a better world to live in than the one we’re in right now.
My biggest hope is that the smallest ones will not remember this time. That it is over before my son can walk so when that moment comes I can take him for walks without fearing for his life.