OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — On a larger scale, the pandemic has significantly improved over the past few months, but on a smaller scale, families are still navigating uncharted territory.
41 Action News caught up with one family that’s had its hands full recently, more so than normal.
Reporter Dan Cohen first met Megan Coffey in October while she was helping her kindergartener with virtual learning. The school year and its many changes had gone smoothly. But then Megan and her family were hit with a significant loss.
"So my granddad who I’m the closest with of anybody in our entire family. He was almost 100, he passed away," she said.
And then March got worse after her son had a brief fever.
"So I went and got tested. I started, I had a low-grade fever. Wednesday, late afternoon, when got tested that evening, and I knew before I even got home, they called and said it was positive," Coffey said.
Three out of four in her home were positive for COVID-19, after months and months of playing it safe.
"Like no grocery stores, it was very, very frustrating," she said.
And as if all of this wasn’t enough, there was more to come.
"The night I got back from being tested, our three-year-old fell, and what we watched a goose egg just grow on his head. So we called Children's Mercy and it was just like, I was waiting for the house to burn down basically, like what next?" Coffey recalled.
Thankfully, the house did not burn down - and things did improve.
Everyone recovered, and Megan’s grandfather’s funeral service was held last week.
They worked through it all with a valued support system.
"I feel extremely grateful and appreciative because I know there are lots of people that don't have that, and this would have been way harder without those people," Coffey said.
The experience led to self-reflection.
"Gosh, I hope I’m as good of a friend to all these people as they have been to me. I'll definitely continue to be more mindful especially losing a grandparent since this is the first grandparent that I've lost that has meant a lot to me," Coffey said.
She added that she's been even more cognizant of pandemic-related signs when out and about that remind people to wear masks and stay socially distant.
Coffey and her husband are scheduled for their second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine after they had to cancel their initial appointments when they tested positive.
