My mother-in-law offered to keep my four-year-old daughter while I recovered from pneumonia, and at first I was grateful. But two weeks became six, and every return somehow got delayed. By the time I finally drove to her house unannounced, I already knew something was wrong.
Advertisement
Six weeks ago, I thought the worst part of my life was being hospitalized with pneumonia.
I was wrong.
My name is Amanda.
I’m 34, I work as an esthetician, and I have a four-year-old daughter named Sophie.
It started with what I thought was a bad chest infection.
Within days, I was struggling to breathe.
I ended up in the hospital with severe pneumonia and stayed there for two weeks, most of that time in isolation.
I had to take time off work immediately.
At first, I was too sick to care about anything except breathing without pain.
My mother-in-law, Carol, offered to take Sophie.
“Just until you’re back on your feet,” she said.
I was grateful.
Dan, my husband, still had to work, and I knew Sophie needed more attention than he could realistically give while also dealing with me being in the hospital.