A family of seven lost their home in Malden due to a fire and contracted COVID-19 but is keeping a positive lookout.
The Graham family suspects they contracted COVID-19 when staying with other family members after losing their house in the fire. The family described COVID-19 symptoms to be similar to a cold but with intense exhaustion which makes staying out of bed for more than a few minutes is difficult.
"You just have to get through it. You have no choice. You just do it," one of Graham's daughters, 10-year-old Claudia said when asked how they were managing.
The couple expressed distress in seeing their daughter struggling to fight the COVID-19 symptoms. "It kind of kills your heart to see her hurting like that," Matthew Graham said. "I just held her for a while and explained to her that finding the smallest space isn't going to make her feel safe, because what she wants is the safety of home, and home is gone. Sleeping in a corner on the floor isn't going to fix that. It took awhile, but she did come sleep on the bed."
Despite their loss, the family is focusing on what is most important for them--faith."Even though we lost everything, we still have everything. We -- well, we were healthy," he said, laughing. "We will probably be healthy again. It's just keeping that perspective."
"Coming from the devastation, from seeing all your stuff in about a foot of ash, to just seeing there is hope. It's going to take some time, but we know that we're going to get out of this OK."
The Graham family has been staying at a hotel and are paying for hotel costs through their GoFundMe page in which their family, friends, and even strangers are donating money to support the Grahams during their tragic times. "We aren't thinking this is, like, the worst thing to happen to anybody," Matthew Graham said. "It's probably the hardest time of my life. I've told my children that, but we're going to get through this."
