The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

HAVING barely survived Hurricane Dorian in early September, Abaco native Linda Albury did not anticipate she would soon have another battle to face - COVID-19.

The 66-year-old told The Tribune yesterday her life has never been the same since the hurricane destroyed her home but on top of that ordeal she has been fighting the potentially deadly coronavirus for more than two weeks.

Mrs Albury and her sister, Susan Julie Cates, tested positive for COVID-19 in late March, several months after relocating to New Providence from Abaco following Dorian.

She does not know how they contracted the virus. While she expects to make a full recovery, her sister died from the disease earlier this month.

"It's been rough, to say the least," Mrs Albury told The Tribune yesterday. "We don't know how either one of us contracted it really. I have no idea. We were doing what we were supposed to do, only going to the food store. Only going to the pharmacy… but I started with the low-grade fever around the 25th of March.

"My sister was already not feeling too well. She had been in the hospital just previously and I was helping to take care of her and then I started not feeling too well, so I isolated myself from her and her son had to take her to the hospital. They tested her there for the virus and it was positive."

Several days later, Mrs Albury's sister died from the virus.

Having already lost several close relatives in the aftermath of Dorian, Mrs Albury said her sister's death was an unexpected blow to the family.

She told The Tribune: "Three weeks after the storm, we lost my mother. She was 92 and in failing health. I guess it was just too much for her. We lost (her son) Randy's special daughter in early December. She was seven.

"In February, I lost my uncle, my mother's brother and I lost my sister on April 2 to the virus. My sister was Susan Julie Cates. She passed out of Doctors Hospital, (on) Blake Road.

"She had health issues and she was a diabetic and apparently, this COVID-19 can really attack diabetics very badly and it just happened so fast."

Shortly after losing her sister, Mrs Albury said her symptoms started to become more pronounced. This, she said, forced her relatives to contact health officials.

"The day after my sister passed, I was experiencing some shortness of breath," she said. "And my brother spoke with (Health Minister) Dr Duane Sands and Dr Sands felt like I did have the virus. (And) the ambulance came and got me and carried me to PMH where they did all the tests.

"And they carried me to Blake Road on (a) Sunday night and I was there until I think it might've been the 11th. I was discharged and brought home on the Saturday evening and I've been home ever since."

She is now still in quarantine, away from her family. "I'm quarantined from my family for two weeks but it's good that I can wave to them, my brother, my sister-in law and my sister's son is here (because) luckily there's a little cottage in the back where I can be quarantined."

Almost fully recovered from the infectious disease, Mrs Albury says she spends her time cooking, cleaning, watching TV and exercising.

She said: "God has been good through all of it. He's brought me out and I'm home. I feel pretty good. Like yesterday, I ran the electric sweep over the floor here and I made my bed in the mornings. I fixed myself some breakfast and lunch and I'm not doing anything really, really physical."

She added: "I try to get a few walks around the patio every day and of course, I'm doing my breathing exercises that I have to do for my lungs, and you know, everybody is different.

"Because even though I get, like, shortness of breath, I didn't have the pain, the chest pains, that a lot of people seemed to have, you know, because I'm so thankful that I haven't had that. But everybody seems to be so different with their symptoms."

Mrs Albury said it's important for everyone to take this virus seriously. "It's really really a serious thing what this virus is doing and not only to The Bahamas, but the whole world," she said. "Anybody with underlying health problems, it seems to be a lot worse for them."