For three weeks now, Lt. Commander James Reyes hasn’t been home ever since the military and the police were deployed for the under enhanced community quarantine in Luzon due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
On Friday, his children asked to come home to have a meal.
But he wouldn’t be eating together with his family like he used to. His two children prepared a table in an open space of their house and laid the food on the table.
Reyes ate his meal alone while his children watched him from afar.
“Malapit yung mga anak mo pero hindi mo man lang mahawakan,” Reyes told The Filipino Times in a phone interview.
He shared his story is similar to those other frontliners like him who can’t be with their families at this time.
Like Reyes, Theresa Ugto’s sister also has to bear the feeling of being away from her daughter.
Ugto shared the video of her sister, who is a policewoman, and her daughter sharing an “air hug” after she picked up the food that her daughter left outside of their gate.
Theresa, in an interview with TV Patrol Southern Mindanao, said her sister’s nine-year-old daughter Perszi was excited at that time to see her mother, Patrolwoman Josephil Nestoso.
Since she couldn’t hug her mother physically, she gave her an air hug.
The video tugged the heartstrings of many netizens that reached more than 2 million views.
Nestoso, in a Facebook post, said she hopes that the reality that they are facing would allow the public to see that they need their cooperation so they could go home to their families and kiss and hug them.
On the other hand, Reyes, who is currently the civil-military officer of the Fleet Ready Force based in Sangley Point, Cavite City, said he hopes that those who still violate the curfew and protocols against COVID-19 would see the sacrifices they are doing just to keep the community and even their families safe.
