PHOTOGRAPHED BY MORGANA WINGARD

ATLANTA, GEORGIA - April 23, 2020: The first time I had cancer at 27 I was not prepared, but by the time it came back for the second time ten years later, I had buried 13 family members. Everybody in my family has it so we know what to expect. COVID not so much. There’s still so many unknowns out there. You can try to Google it, but the information is still fresh. It came like a thief in the night. That's the part that scared me.

The minute that our local news started to really touch on COVID, it was in my face. World news is one thing but when it was on our local news, it was nonstop all day. That's all they talked about. In Georgia, the news told us to take precautions by wearing a mask and gloves. I was hesitant about going out because we had our first case. I told my husband, “Hey, let's go and grab some gloves, masks, and we need at the market, so we don’t have to go back out.” I'm sort of an introvert anyways. I stay home a lot so getting our groceries for the two weeks would’ve been fine for me. I didn't need to go out, but that's when I got it, I believe. 

I went to the market on Sunday, March 22nd. The next day I started getting diarrhea and an upset stomach. On Monday, March 24th I had problems with my breathing and then it progressed to difficulty breathing. I felt like two elephants were sitting on my chest. 

We called Emory Midtown and told the nurse my symptoms. She told me to immediately go to the emergency room. 

As soon as I got into the hospital, they separated me from my husband and daughter. They couldn't even go in the same area of the waiting room that I was in. At that point, I really couldn't breathe so I told the receptionist I had to have a seat. When they called my name, I stood up and completely blacked out. When I woke up, they had me in the back of the hospital connected to machines on my face and IVs. 

They did the swab for the COVID test that hurt like crazy and was very scary.

Still, in my mind it didn’t register that I had COVID-19 because I did not have a fever or the other symptoms they said you normally get with it. I really thought I had the flu or it was something related to  my thyroid since I do have an underlying thyroid illness called Graves' disease. 

I was terrified because the nurses came in dressed in those hazmat suits. I'm thinking, “This is really serious. You're in a hospital.” I'm by myself, completely by myself. At that point it hit me it really hit me that this is really real. 

These nurses come in and ask, “Do you have a living will?” They're having those kinds of conversations with you soon as you get into the hospital. It messed with my psyche a little. 

There was an atmosphere of panic because there was so much going on at the hospital. You could hear the nurses outside the door talking about how they didn't have enough supplies and people were winging it. That messes with your psyche too. As they were coming in and out of the room, they're doing tests, they're poking me every hour. You could tell they were even afraid. It was all still new to people. It was surreal. 

Even down to bringing food to my room. They would leave my food outside the door and then I had to wait until somebody would bring it into the room. By the time I got it, it was cold. Nobody wanted to bring it in because they would have to go put a whole new suit on. I guess there were so many patients that they were just trying to keep up.

Luckily my phone was charged so I could FaceTime one of my best friends and my husband. I needed to see their faces while all of this was happening. 

The doctor came into my room and told me the results of my COVID test. Before that, the nurse had said that she was already 99.9% sure that I had COVID based on my symptoms and the tests that they already did.

The second day in the hospital, my health started to decline. My blood pressure went through the roof. I had issues with my kidneys. It's as if my body was starting to shut down. I was very sluggish and slurring my words. I felt like death was in my room. I literally felt like I was dying. 

Around me all I heard was code blue. I was on the COVID-19 floor at Emory. Day in and day out, it was all you heard.  

I was asking God, “Why me? I'm a two-time cancer survivor. I'm always tested with my health. Why me? Why do I have to keep enduring all these tests? What is it about me? Why do I have to keep going through this?” At this point I'm not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm just feeling horrible. “Is this the end for me?” I asked. 

I know if you're not faith-based, people may not get it, but to me He said, “Trust me. I'm going to pull you through this. I need you to trust me.” Sometimes a miracle has to happen and then He uses you as a beacon to show people that you can get pulled out of this. I'm always used as that person to bring hope. 

My health was declining that Wednesday night. Thursday morning, when the sun came up, I felt this peace happening around my body. I posted a picture with the light that was in my room. And I would never have thought to even think about taking that picture. But, at that moment I felt His presence immediately over my body. When the nurse came in for my vitals that morning, everything had completely switched in my body. Everything that was declining was now normalized. My kidneys were functioning properly. My blood pressure was stabilized. That's when I knew that He healed me.

I was quarantined for 14 days after my release from the hospital in my own part of the house with my own bathroom and bedroom. My daughter and my husband stayed out. I could hear them laughing, cooking breakfast, cooking dinner, playing cards, and I was stuck in this room. I'm grateful to have recovered at home versus at the hospital. But, that time alone was still tough. I'm a hugger. We are very affectionate people. Our love language is touch and to not do that was tough. My husband would throw kisses and that was hard.

You try to stay busy, but you're still tired. You're still weak. I was not creative at all. I'm a writer. I tried to write. I could not. I tried to read. All I wanted to do was rest. I think we all need that to a certain degree. I was still dealing with some of the symptoms at home but it wasn't as aggressive as it was in the hospital

On my last day of quarantine, I was going to try to go live for my fans and people who have been praying for me, but I couldn't. I wanted that moment to be intimate, to take it all in. I hugged them and I didn't want to let them go. I knew they were my biggest fans. 

Niya has been in real-estate for 20 years, and has since retired and started a Life Coach business as well as an author of Self-help books. She currently lives in Atlanta with her husband. Both her husband and daughter lived in the same house with her when she was quarantined, but never developed symptoms. They were never tested.

BEHIND THE SCENES INTERVIEW WITH NIYA AND MORGANA