Bossier wife, mother recovering after COVID-19 diagnosis

BENTON, La. (KSLA) — Mandy Barker enjoyed a little bit of sunshine today from her front porch while still awaiting to get her entire life back on track.

“Today is at least Day 9 since I kissed my husband,” she admits with a smile.

“Looking back, today would be Day 16 from my first symptom."

Mandy says the past few weeks have been spent isolated in her bedroom away from her husband and her 14-year-old daughter, or either sitting or driving around in her car.

“I’d drive around and look at the water,” explains Mandy, whose family lives less than a mile from Black Bayou Reservoir.

“I would see people enjoying it and wish I could be out there and wish I could be with my family. It gave me a mental lift to get out of the one room I have been in.”

When asked if right after her diagnosis she ever could imagine the number of COVID-19 cases in Louisiana would reach almost 10,000, she responded: “No way. No way to know."

Mandy believes she was exposed to the virus 21 days ago while on a family trip to New Orleans.

“At that time, there were only one or two cases in South Louisiana."

She says they made the best of their trip, although they did call off going on a cruise they were scheduled to take with departure from the New Orleans port.

But not long after returning home, Mandy says she started running a high fever.

“I got scared. It reached 102.3."

She would later test positive, while her husband and daughter have yet to show or feel any symptoms.

And now after a 14-day quarantine from her family, for the first time in two weeks, they sat down together at the dinner table.

“I’m very grateful. I think things could have been much worse. I just know God is walking with us.”

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