Facing Rejection from Friends While Battling COVID-19: One Woman’s Harrowing Experience

I recently contracted coronavirus. I usually like to be sick at home by myself without anyone touching me. I treat myself gently, look the way I want and everything. But this time I got very sick. The first two weeks I had no strength for anything. There was no mention of going to the pharmacy. I didn’t even want to order medicines delivered to my home. I wanted to eat a little, but I couldn’t organize the process either. She lay helpless and prayed that everything would end.

But I was getting worse and worse. On the third day of the illness, the temperature rose and became very high. I realized it was time to ask someone for help.

First, I wrote to my best friend. But as luck would have it, she went to live with her parents in another city. I’m sure she would help me if she was in town.

Although, on the other hand, she couldn’t help but hear in my voice how bad I felt. I do not, of course, ask you to change all your plans and run from another city to me. But it would be possible to offer remote assistance. For example, call an ambulance or ask someone you know to come to me instead.

Well, okay, let it stay on her conscience. After getting a rejection, I called another good friend of mine. Her answer surprised me even more.

– Oh, coronavirus? It is wildly contagious. I was sick, I know. Katyusha, I’m going on an important business trip next week, there’s no way I could get infected. I hope you understand me. Maybe you can ask someone else? – she answered.

I said I would work myself out and hung up. Of course, I understand that work is very important, and she could not take that risk. But who made her contact me? I could take pills and hot soup and leave them at the door. She just didn’t want to even think about how she could help me.

When I thought I couldn’t hear stupid and harsh excuses that day, I called my third friend. This was my last hope. True, we had a bit of a fight recently. But I thought that this was no reason not to help me in such a difficult situation.

– Yul, please bring me medicine home. I’ll tell you exactly which ones. You don’t have to come in, leave it at the door. Or find them online and order delivery. “My head hurts so bad I can’t even look at the screen,” I asked.

– Well, of course, as problems arise, you need me immediately! As for how to borrow money, you rejected me. What kind of double standards do you have? – said a friend.

– I told you I didn’t have any extra money. What are you comparing? – I said, gathering my last strength.

Without waiting for an answer, I hung up. If I didn’t even have the strength to prescribe pills, there was no talk of arguing or cursing. Realizing that no one was going to help me, I cried a little.

I didn’t want to worry my parents. I knew that they would start to worry as soon as they heard that I was very ill. And then, somehow, magically, my phone got a call from an old friend, because we hadn’t communicated in maybe five years. They didn’t argue, they split up at some point. I certainly did not expect her call. I even thought that I was already thinking about this because of my illness.

– Nastya, Hello! They have not communicated with you for a thousand years. As a young life? – she asked.

– Hello, Mary. Yes, I got very sick. “Coronavirus,” I answered in a weak voice.

– So, where do you live now? At home yourself? If so, I will come and bring you medicine and food. “You must be completely bored there,” Marina said immediately.

Literally an hour later she arrived and took everything. She wasn’t even afraid to come into the apartment and help me with everything. She said she had already recovered from Covid and was not afraid of getting the disease. So in one day I became unhappy with some friends and found an old friend again. It’s not for nothing that they say an old friend is better than two new ones.

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