The Tragic Proclamation Heard Around the World

Day #1 My husband and I moved to Vellore, India in the summer of 2018. We had both recently retired and my husband was given the opportunity to become the Project Management Consultant for the construction of a new, large hospital, needed to provide additional capacity for the already existing and overcrowded Christian Medical College (CMC) Hospital in Vellore. God couldn’t have been clearer in His call to this assignment: my husband fit all three very specific qualifications/requirements and every single detail and all logistics fell into place as we moved forward. We quickly settled into a comfortable routine in Vellore, surrounded by wonderful friends and amazing cultural experiences. I loved the opportunity to volunteer as the “Story Auntie” for the PreK- 5th grade students at a large private Indian school. Life was fulfilling and we fully intended to remain in Vellore until the hospital project was completed. And then COVID struck in India; on March 23, 2020, the government announced that the entire country was going into an immediate, total lockdown for a weekend. This ended up being just a “practice drill”, as shortly after, another total country-wide indefinite lockdown was mandated. For us, this meant that we were housebound in our small apartment, construction on the hospital stopped, all schools were closed, and groceries were ordered online; a lockdown in India is not something that can be ignored on the basis of “individual freedoms”. We added our names to the US Embassy list of Americans seeking to evacuate and in April 2020, we were able to get on a flight out of the country. And so, we returned to the US, uncertain about what the future held. My husband was able to return in August of 2020; I remained back in the US because all schools were closed and COVID would again keep me confined inside our housing compound. I was able to rejoin my husband in Vellore in February of 2021 for 2 months. During this time, schools and churches remained closed, I had limited contact with friends, and I had the sad task of dismantling our apartment in preparation for our move back to the US. We are now settled in our US home, finding our way through what retirement will look like in the future. While I am aware that COVID affected all of us to varying degrees and in various ways, I continue to lament the unexpected, unwanted, and drastic life change that the mandated lockdown announcement had on us.

— cmshingle