It was one year ago this week the nation’s eyes were glued to the Port of Oakland where the coronavirus-stricken Grand Princess cruise ship sailed in.
This was during a time very little was known about the virus; the World Health Organization hadn’t yet declared it a pandemic and the American public had more questions than answers, all with a mysterious ship sailing into San Francisco Bay.
The ship’s passengers, including Lyn Hamilton and her husband, John, had been quarantined in their cabins for nearly a week before being allowed ashore. Even then, then they spent 14 more days quarantining at Travis Air Base in Fairfield until going home, the entire experience leaving lingering effects.
"I don’t know if you want to call it a nightmare that we were locked up again, that we were quarantined again," she told KCBS Radio. "You’d wake up and just ‘Oh my God, where are we?’"
Hamilton said while there's a lot we've learned about the virus in the last year, there's still a lot we don't know.
"John and I were together in the room," Hamilton explained. "We, at some point at Travis, we had one bottle of water to share all day long because they ran out of water. So, we drank out of the same bottle of water. We slept together. He didn’t get (the coronavirus) and I had it."
Three days before arriving in Oakland, Hamilton developed a dry cough, but no fever so doctors didn't test her. When she got to Travis, she lost her taste and smell, and was finally diagnosed by a doctor.
After that, she was happy to spend the last year sheltering at home.
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"It’s a year ago," she added. "I am so done with that. It will always be engraved in my mind and I’ll never forget what we went through. I’m not happy about it and yes, we have scars, but you know what, we just have to try and move forward."
In fact, she got her second vaccine this week and urges others to do the same.
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