The New Normal: Life after surviving coronavirus

 

A look at life during a pandemic. On the surface, our communities are slumbering, as the vast majority of Washington’s citizens are homebound. Empty businesses and roadways offer a daily reminder of the risks the coronavirus presents. How we work, live, play and interact have all shifted. From the front lines to those in isolation, COVID-19 has affected everyone and behind every door, stories unfold. See more stories here.

00:02

Sadie Pimpleton: I had pneumonia. My blood sugar was over 600. I wasn't eating. I was so weak and I couldn't breathe.

00:17

Sadie Pimpleton: It was a frightening thing. I was really scared.

00:21

Sadie Pimpleton: My grandkids, they were really scared ’cause they thought I was dying.

00:32

Sadie Pimpleton: So they did all the tests, and then they admitted me to Swedish hospital, and I was in quarantine in Swedish hospital, I think about six days. And I was on oxygen the whole time I was in there.

00:49

Sadie Pimpleton: I was knocking at the door, but the good Lord wasn't ready for me. So, hey, I was given a second chance, and I count my blessings every day, every day.

01:02

Sadie Pimpleton: Oh, there she go, all right, big girl.

01:07

Sadie Pimpleton: I had a faith and with my family, prayers and everything, I got through it. I'm better. I'm back to myself again. My grandkids are really sweet. They really are. And when I came home, they was very supportive.

01:24

Sadie Pimpleton: They would make sure that I had everything that I needed. I think their biggest problem is they were frightened, really frightened. But now they see that I'm up and about. Oh, they say, "Oh, grandma, you back to yourself now ’cause you complaining."

01:38

(Laughs)

01:41

Sadie Pimpleton: But my life is surrounded around my grandkids. I make sure that they have, even if I don't have, I'll make sure. They're the love of my life.

01:53

Alesia Cannady: Sadie Pimpleton is like a sister to me. I met Sadie at a grandmas picnic, and we just seem to connect. I am the founder of Women United, which is a nonprofit organization that support grandmothers that are raising grandchildren. We are not like friends.

02:19

Alesia Cannady: We're like sisters, all of us, that is how close and how tight and if one of us is going through something, all of us is going through something.

02:31

Alesia Cannady: I was scared for her and everybody around her because she has underlying conditions. So, yes, I was definitely scared for her. And just thinking that when she came back, all of those people, a lot of some of the people that they were in contact with, that one of them had passed away.

(Melancholy music)

02:53

Alesia Cannady: And Sadie at the point was going through it, and we just rallied around her, encouraging her, checking on her. That's where we decided we're gonna make masks, and the masks that we're going to make would be to serve the community.

03:10

Alesia Cannady: This will be a great opportunity for grandmothers and grandchildren to be able to do a project together. It's good for the grandmothers to work on masks because in this situation that we find ourselves in, there was so many of them that were getting depressed. They were shut in. There was nothing to do.

03:32

Alesia Cannady: Sadie knows when she gets up in the morning what her day is planned to be, whether it's gonna go out and do her errands and do all this stuff. And when she comes home to tackle that fabric getting cut, lay them patterns out and and start sewing.

03:46

Alesia Cannady: It was her healing and getting even better and better and better. The masks is basically pretty much keeping her mind focused.

03:55

Sadie Pimpleton: A lot of people can't afford the masks and like we are making them and we are giving them to ’em. Like Saturday, we was down at Safeway in Renton. And, you know, people going in and out the stores, they didn't have masks, so we would give it to ’em.

04:07

Sadie Pimpleton: It's give me a chance to get out of the house and get out of my little shell, knowing that I can make a difference in helping people.

(Somber music)

04:22

Sadie Pimpleton: I got a second chance. The second time I've had a second chance is 1989. I had a tumor on the brain. And they say I was permanently disabled. I would never be able to work again. And, hey, the good Lord brought me through that, too.

04:40

Sadie Pimpleton: So I was given a second chance. And like I tell everybody, hey, I'm a living testimony. And, every Sunday, I wouldn't miss a Sunday. I go to church by 8 o'clock in the morning.

04:52

Sadie Pimpleton: And that seems to be the only thing that gets me through the week. And I feel like I'm closer to the Lord.

05:00

Pastor: African Americans, sons and daughters, my community was hit most by the losses and the casualties

05:07

Alesia Cannady: She has power over any situation, this virus thing, so it was her power that helped heal her. It was our prayers that helped heal her. So to continue expressing her power within herself, and put that same thing in her children, when they come against something that's really tough against the wall, that if you can't go through it, climb over it. She climbed over it.

05:33

Sadie Pimpleton: Only thing I can say is I am so glad that I was able to pull through it by the grace of the good Lord, and I count my blessings every day.

05:42

Sadie Pimpleton: Don't take nothing for granted, ’cause by the snap of your finger, you can be here today and gone tomorrow.

05:49

Sadie Pimpleton: Hey, I was knocking at the door. He just wasn't ready for me.