As we continue to navigate this new normal, we’re seeing just how severe the global shutdowns are. A 33-year old mother who has been living overseas for the last year was recently separated from her husband and 3-year old son.

Imani Bashir, her husband, and son relocated to Wuhan, China last year when her husband was hired as an international football coach. The couple traveled to Malaysia for vacation during the Chinese New Year. While in Malaysia, they begin to receive alerts and text messages from their landlord in China saying that a bad virus was making its way to Wuhan.

Instead of heading back to China, the family decided to leave their belongings behind and figure out the next steps with only their vacation luggage in tow.

“That’s one thing that a lot of people really don’t understand because they’ve just been in one place dealing with the outbreak” Imani Bashir said in a statement to Huff Post. “But for us, this has been since December 2019.”

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We left Wuhan in what we thought was the nick of time. We were repurposed to stay in Malaysia much longer than we expected. We decided to return to life as usual and my husband took a new contract in Europe and I came to the US to fulfill some goals I thought I’d have to put on hold. We are now faced with the US potentially being on lockdown and Europe closing its borders day-by-day. The last time I saw my husband and son was the day after our son’s 3rd birthday (Feb 28th). This pandemic forced us to leave our lives in China behind and now it has the potential to separate my family for much longer than we ever anticipated. Honestly, I’m just tired!

A post shared by GLOBAL MEDIA SPECIALIST (@sheisimanib) on Mar 14, 2020 at 5:31am PDT

After nearly a month of being in Malaysia, Imani’s husband was able to secure a new job in Czech Republic as a coach. He took their young son with him while Imani went back to the United States to fulfill several speaking obligations.

Her plan was to meet her family in Czech Republic once she was done but before things got bad in the States. This was in February.

After cases in the states begin to increase and travel bans started to happen, Imani knew she had to leave sooner rather than later.

On March 16, she began her travels which started with a layover in Amsterdam. But, when it was time to catch her final flight to reunite with her son and husband– she was told the borders were closed and she couldn’t go.

“I cried a lot,” she said. “But when you’re in the midst of traveling, you just have to figure it out as you go along because, for me, then time was of the essence.”

She instead decided to fly to London because she had family there that she could stay with while she figured things out. During that time her husband was laid off from his coaching job due to the outbreak which in turn affects the housing provided.

Imani has been working hard to find a way to bring them to London. It has been nearly a month and she has kept in contact with her son via FaceTime although he doesn’t understand why mommy isn’t there with him.

“As far as getting to my husband and my son, I will risk my life for that,” said Bashir. “Getting them to me is the most important thing right now.”

Related: A Black Expat Opens Up About What It’s Like In Korea During The Coronavirus Outbreak

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