COVID-19 is finally starting to get under control in the US, but it's changed everyone's lives already. Whether you lost someone you loved to COVID-19 or you've had it and are still concerned over getting your sense of taste back, the disease has found ways to change everything. And the same is true for Pink, who is opening up more about what the experience was like for her.
Both Pink and her young son, Jameson, tested positive for COVID-19 several months back. Her husband, Carey Hart, and daughter, Willow, didn't get the virus.
In an interview with Ellen DeGeneres last year, Pink said that Jameson was sick first. "Jameson's two days now without a fever, which is really a huge relief," she said.
"It started with Jameson, actually, and you know he's 3, 3-year-olds get sick all the time. But he started with a fever March 14th, we've been quarantined since March 11th … [His fever] would come and go, and then he would have stomach pains, and diarrhea, and chest pains, and then a headache, and then [a] sore throat. It was sort of just all over the place. Every day was some new symptom."
"I thought they told us our kids were gonna be OK," she had told Ellen. "We were told that our kids are gonna be OK. I think when people started explaining what this disease is, it was too early to be able to name it completely and tell everybody what to look for. It's super real and it's affecting not just people above 65 years old." That information may have been why Pink thought she was going to die after testing positive.
As it turns out, Pink was under the impression that COVID-19 might end her life. "It was really, really bad," she said to Mark Wright of the Heart Radio show, per People. "I rewrote my will." She even made sure that her daughter would be taken care of in case she and Jameson didn't survive.
While her husband is supportive of their family, Pink knew that it'd be tough for Willow to lose her mom at such a young age. "I called my best friend and I said, 'I just need you to tell Willow how much I love her,'" Pink said. "It was really really scary and really bad."
It wasn't the only illness that Pink had to battle. As she posted on Instagram, she had quite the year. "As if surviving covid wasn’t enough for this poop sandwich of a year! Well, I got my stitches out from drying that wine glass, that went well. Then I recovered from my very first staph infection for no reason (cry for help?) (right knee was lonely?) so I thought I’d fracture my ankle!" she said in a post that features her masked and in a recovery room.
Luckily, a broken ankle is bad news, but nowhere near as scary as COVID-19. "Later tonight I'm gonna climb inside a raw chicken and see if I can't check out what salmonella’s like!" Pink joked. "2020 is the gift that keeps on giving."
Still, Pink will never forget what it was like when she thought she might not survive. And she had a right to think that this virus might take her out. So far, there have been 577,000 deaths in the United States.
"As a parent, you think, 'What am I leaving for my kid?'" she reflected. "What am I teaching them? Are they going to make it in this world? And what do I need to tell them if this is the last time I get to tell them anything?" It's something she shouldn't have had to think about just yet.
While it's upsetting to know that she struggled with these thoughts and struggled with her health, it's also good that Pink has always been open and up-front about the virus. A lot of people still don't believe that it's real, so having a celebrity come forward with their symptoms is important. Pink has a voice that many people will listen to.
Pink was also very vocal about COVID-19 and how devastating it is through a post about Amanda Kloots and her late husband, Broadway star Nick Cordero. Nick died at 41 years old from COVID-19. Pink shared some of Amanda's words, including the powerful statement of, "I cried next to my husband for 95 days watching what COVID did to the person I love. It IS something to be afraid of."
Last year, Pink also opened up about COVID-19 right before Mother's Day. She shared what her experience was like and how it made her appreciate her family on a completely different level. In the piece, which she penned for NBC News, she admitted that the uncertainty she felt when she and Jameson got sick was uncertainty that many moms feel every day.
"Our story is not unique," she wrote. "There are mothers all over America, and the world, that are facing this same uncertainty every single day. Not every family, especially those living on reservations, or in refugee camps, slums, or favelas, are able to practice social distancing. In many parts of the world it can take hours just to access water, and even then, soap may be an impossible luxury."
"As we begin to envision what life will look like on the other side of this, we need to put ourselves in the shoes of moms around the globe and consider doing what we can to help keep their babies safe," she added. "How can we partake in ensuring their access to the basic human rights that so many of us are afforded each and every day?"
Just a little bit of perspective made the singer realize that more can be done to help people who don't know if tomorrow will be their last day.
Pink got lucky in that she's recovered from the coronavirus disease. But surely the experience will stick with her for a lifetime. Even having to see Jameson so sick must have been a nightmare to witness. Back when everything started, many people assumed that children wouldn't be affected. But many were.
Facing a near-death experience often makes you appreciate each day a little more. Pink has managed to make it through the year with a sense of humor and honesty. Thinking about Willow first and foremost when she was sick is just proof that she takes motherhood incredibly seriously and is a great mom all around.
