Guardian Homepage: https://www.theguardian.com/
A Guardian guest story written by Michael Segalov, from the story of Amrita, 43, researcher, New Jersey and Sweden.
In summer 2017 I upped sticks from the US to start my new job in Sweden. A few weeks in – struggling with the language while ordering a coffee – a man in the queue behind jumped in to help me. We started talking, he introduced himself as Christian. We’ve been together for two and half years, and he proposed last April.
I settled in quickly, but my teenage son missed America. I decided to stay, and he headed home to be with his dad. Since then I’ve been splitting my time between both countries. In early March, I made a trip to the US. Once I arrived, things started to get worse: my speaking engagements were cancelled, my son’s school closed. Then my flight got cancelled. I booked a new one, but when the day came my boy was feeling insecure and I couldn’t leave him. I arranged a new ticket, but the plane never took off.
I sometimes wonder if Christian really understands the severity of what it means to live in a state of emergency. Things are different in Sweden: he’s still going to work and can pop out for a walk or to a café in the evening.
Days start in lightness, we send jokey texts. It’s at nighttime, when we’d normally be together, that the choking loneliness hits. Our wedding was planned for July, although now that’s definitely not happening. It breaks my heart to have no idea when I’ll see him again.
This story is from a series by Michael Segalov, called Love in the time of corona: ‘This wasn’t how I planned it, but she said yes’, written for the Guardian Newspaper, 12th April 2020.
“Imagine being separated from the one you love. Or stuck with the one you don’t, or being alone? Stories of the heart from behind quarantined walls”
Original Guardian article URL: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/apr/12/love-in-the-time-of-corona-stories-of-the-heart-told-from-behind-quarantined-walls
Guardian Homepage: https://www.theguardian.com/