From happiness to sorrow and loss, and back again

一个家庭微信群的战“疫”故事

始于快乐，历经悲伤离散，终回日常

My father was born in the city of Wuhan and some of my relatives live there as well some also live overseas. Luckily, we can still connect with each other through a shared WeChat group called Happy Family where we catch up, post funny videos and gossip occasionally.

我的爸爸出生在武汉，家里一些亲戚也住在武汉，还有一些家人居住在世界其他角落。开心的是，我们可以互相联系，通过一个名为“快乐大家庭”的微信群。我们常常在里面互问近况，发有趣的视频，有时候也会八卦一下。

But 2020 turned out to be a year unlike any other.

我们从没想到2020成了如此特殊的一年。

In mid-January, we were all excited about the Chinese New Year 1 which was about to fall about 10 days later. Some were planning to travel to warm Hainan some were gonna make special big Spring Festival purchases and others were gonna visit their distant relatives. None of us fully realized what lay in wait.

1月中旬，大家都很期待春节的到来，此时距离过节只有10天左右。一些亲戚计划去温暖的海南旅游，一些准备采购年货，还有一些打算去拜访远亲。我们谁也没意识到等待我们的是什么，

Then on January the 23rd, news of a mysterious illness broke out a virus we now call COVID-19. This virus is highly infectious making people extremely sick and sometimes even killing them. At that moment, it was as if that Wuhan pushed a giant stop button and everything was put into lockdown.

1月23日，新闻里突然播报一种神秘病毒，我们现在称其为新型冠状病毒。这种病毒传染性极强，感染病毒者可能会病重甚至身亡。那个时刻，武汉被按下了“暂停”键。整个城市都被隔离了。

Naturally, in the Happy Family WeChat group messages of anxiety and panic quickly popped up.

Do you have enough face masks?

Are we gonna have enough medical test kits?

Omg, I ve heard my neighbor just got the virus.

Spring Festival is supposed to be a time to sending out red envelopes but we began to send worry envelopes.

自然而然，在“快乐大家庭”微信群里，担忧的消息也一个接一个地弹出。

你们的口罩够吗?

医院的检测盒够吗？

天，我刚听说我的邻居感染了。

春节本应是发红包的时候，此时群里发出的却是焦虑和担忧。

Every day, our WeChat group was bombarded with climbing figures of confirmed coronavirus cases and even deaths. Reports on social media were not helping any matters. Chaos was only causing more confusion. Then a message from Auntie Yun popped up telling us her neighbor had just died of the virus. He was only 48 years old and had been quite healthy. How could somebody like that just die? We were agitated and frightened. Then there was dead silence. Nobody would say anything. Wuhan became a ghost town and Happy Family became a ghost group.

我们的微信群每天都充斥不断攀升的数字：确诊病例甚至死亡人数。社交媒体上的报道也没有改善现状。杂乱的消息只让人更加困惑。云阿姨在群里发信。告诉我们她的邻居刚因冠状病毒去世。邻居年仅48岁，平时非常健康。怎么一个好好的生命就这样消逝了呢？我们开始焦虑害怕，接着群里一片沉寂，没有人说话。武汉成了一座寂静的城市，“快乐大家庭”变成了一个沉默的群组。

A few days later a piece of news regarding my Auntie Peng broke the general silence of the group. She is a service worker and had been serving the community with sanitation inspections since the dawn of the outbreak. She put on protective suit wore her face mask and patrolled communities to keep track of residents' health and to inform local citizens to quarantine themselves. She went out early and came back late. She did not even have time to look after her 2-year-old child. She stated in her WeChat moments: I wish I can be Doramon so that I can have my own pharmacy to care for the sick and a supermarket to gather supplies.

几天以后，彭阿姨的一条消息打破了大家的沉默。她是一名基层工作者，疫情爆发后一直在社区服务，做环境卫生的安全监测工作。她穿上防护衣，戴上口罩，在社区巡逻，报告居民的健康状况，确保当地市民进行自我隔离。她早出晚归，甚至没有时间照顾自己两岁的孩子。她发微信朋友圈说，我多希望自己是哆啦A梦，这样我就可以变出个药房来照顾病人，变出个超市来收集生活用品。

Honestly, she was our entire inspiration of course but her husband, Uncle Hao, was extremely worried about her safety. And yet three days later, he was actually inspired to become her helping hand. Officially, he became the first volunteer of our family. He sent the sick to hospitals gave people food and water and helped out in many other ways. Not long after that, Auntie Yun's father also joined in. He went from house to house helping check citizens' temperatures to make sure infected people can get cured in time.

彭阿姨的事情鼓舞了我们，但她的丈夫郝叔叔却很担心。然而三天后，受到鼓舞的郝叔叔开始帮助云阿姨。他正式成为这个家庭的第一个志愿者。他接送患者去医院，运送食物和水，竭尽所能地提供帮助。几天后，云阿姨的父亲也加入战“疫”。他挨家挨户地帮忙检查市民的体温，确保感染的患者可以得到及时救治。

My family did not just stop there. Many relatives were very eager to help out and relieve the burden. Uncle Dong is a head chef from a family-owned restaurant. He noticed that doctors and nurses from the front lines were extremely anxious to get food. Henceforth, he signed up for a voluntary program where he would make meals for medical staff members. He made scrambled eggs with tomatoes, Wuchang fish and other steamed dishes which would be packaged and sent to hospitals nearby. This is meant as an appreciation and a boost of morale for medical workers on the frontlines of COVID-19 pandemic. Uncle Dong said: They are risking their own lives to save ours. I can never express my gratitude. I don't have much to offer, but this is the least that I can do. I hope they'll enjoy the authentic local cuisine.

家人们做的远不止这些。亲戚们都很想帮忙减轻负担。董大叔是一家家庭餐馆的主厨。他注意到前线的医生和护士吃饭成问题，于是他报名参加了一个志愿服务项目，为医务人员做饭。他做鸡蛋西红柿、武昌鱼和其他热菜，打包送到附近的医院，以此表达对医务人员的感激   ，并为辛勤工作的他们加油打气。董叔叔说：“他们冒着生命危险救我们，我的感激之情无法言表。能力有限，我尽量做些力所能及之事。希望他们会喜欢地道的本地菜。

”

Soon, two new emergency hospitals and numerous quarantine centers were built in the city of Wuhan. Thanks to the relentless efforts of the medical workers and volunteers patients were given the care that nursed many of them back to good health and saved countless lives. The situation started to turn around and we began to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

很快，两所紧急医院和更多隔离中心在武汉建成。在医务人员和志愿者的不懈努力下，众多患者被精心照料，重获健康，无数生命被挽救。情况开始好转。我们看到战胜疫情的曙光。

But it was really one month later when our Happy Family WeChat group started to sense any real relief. Some relatives resumed their daily activities and posted pictures of hot dry noodles they made at home. Others made talks about how ordinary people can battle against coronavirus and some posted their public square dance videos. Em, not so much, technically, it was a living room square dance.

不过直到一个月后，“快乐大家庭”微信群才真正氛围缓和。群里的一些亲戚回归日常，秀出自己在家做的热干面的照片，大家开始分享普通人共同抗击疫情的感人故事，还有人晒出了他们的广场舞视频。当然，严格来说只是客厅里的“广场舞”。

Up till now, my family has had seven volunteers. And my family is only one of hundreds of thousands of families in Wuhan doing their own bits to pull the city together. If you think about it, my family has been in lockdown for 76 days, that's more than 1,800 hours of torturous isolation. Hundreds of thousands of millions of people in China have to cope with the severe measures taken to tame this virus. But it is our fellow citizens in Wuhan that sacrificed the most to save us from the worst. When we look at these stats they are not just dead figures they signify our feelings, ups and downs they represent countless families torn apart and heart-broken stories but they also symbolize the strength of unity. Without Wuhan's sacrifice from joint efforts from people from all walks of life we wouldn't have what we have achieved so far.

目前为止，我家有七人成为志愿者。但我的家人只是武汉数十万家庭中的一员，他们都在尽自己的一份力量让武汉好起来。回想一下，我们居家隔离76天，也就是1800多个小时的难熬时光。中国数亿人严格遵守隔离政策来对抗病毒。但是武汉人民做出了最大的牺牲，为了避免我们陷入最坏的情况。我们看到的这些数据，不仅仅是冰冷的数字 , 它们象征着我们心情的跌宕起伏，代表着无数家庭离散和心碎的故事，它们更象征着团结的力量。没有武汉的牺牲和社会各界的共同努力，战“疫”就不会有现在的成就。

Now coronavirus has developed from an epidemic to a full-scale global major pandemic and it is still far from being beaten and we began to think about those in other countries in their struggle. Even in China, coronavirus still remains undefeated but I'm sure the end is approaching. By then, I hope everybody will be able to come to Wuhan to enjoy delicious hot dry noodles, climb the famed Yellow Crane Tower and post funny selfies with your family. I firmly believe Wuhan will come out of its shock and everything will be back to normal.

现在新冠病毒已经成为全球性的大流行病，它还远远没有被战胜。我们开始关心其他国家人们的战斗。即使在中国，新冠病毒之战仍然没有结束。但我相信胜利即将来临。到那时，我希望所有人都能来武汉，尝尝美味的热干面，爬上黄鹤楼和家人朋友一起来几张搞笑自拍。我坚信武汉将从震荡中平复，一切都将回归日常。