Prince Harry says a 'positive' of quarantine is 'so much family time'
Prince Harry is talking about his life in quarantine.
After stepping down from his role as a senior royal last month and relocating to Los Angeles with Meghan Markle and their 11-month old son, Archie, they are making the most of their time together — and doing what they can to give back.
The Duke of Sussex participated in a call with a charity he works with called WellChild, which provides care for seriously ill children and young people in the U.K., and gave props to the caretakers.
“The resilience and the strength that you guys have is absolutely incredible,” he told them. “I can’t even begin to imagine how hard it is for you guys. Having one kid, an 11-month-old, is enough [to manage]. To see what every one of you does on a day to day basis — honestly, so much respect to every single one of you.”
Harry went on to say that while this is an especially stressful time for families — especially families of kids with special needs, who need around the clock care and are more at risk of complications should they contract COVID-19. “There’s a hell of a lot of positives that are happening at the same time.” One of them is “being able to have family time. So much family time that you almost think, ‘Do I feel guilty for having so much family time?’”
But, he continued, “You’ve got to celebrate those moments where you are just on the floor rolling around in hysterics because of something that’s happened [because] inevitably, half an hour later, maybe a day later, there’s going to be something that you have to deal with and there’s no way you can run away from it.”
Harry also spoke to some children who have siblings with special needs, saying, “Look, it’s not just the moms and dads who are super. You as kids, no matter what age you are, none of you should be in this situation. None of us should be in this situation but we are and you are doing everything you can to make it easier for your mom and dad to look after you brother or sister. Full respect to every single one of you because this is hard on everyone, but it’s especially hard on you.”
At one point Harry was asked how he was doing and replied, “Not too bad. I think it’s certainly strange times — everyone is experiencing the same thing in a very unique way. But the longer this goes on for, I imagine the harder it is for each and every one of you.”
He went on to say, “It’s all about morale. If morale is up, if you wake up in the morning and go, ‘Right, new day, got my whole family here, what are we going to do?’ Of course, there’s that fear of what might happen, but there’s so much that’s out of our control and all of a sudden we’ve realized how small we are in the grand scheme of things.”
At the close of the call, he urged the caregivers and families to “keep going, keep the morale up, keep busy, keep being creative, dare yourself to try new hobbies and I hope to see you all again very, very soon.”
Harry is trying to put a spotlight on WellChild in hopes of getting more funding for it by the government, saying they are obviously in the “‘vulnerable’ bracket” and need “more help.”
He is also giving back to his new city. Prince Harry and Markle, who grew up in L.A., spent two days this week — Easter Sunday and Wednesday — volunteering for Project Angel Food. The pair donned protective gear and handed out meals and emergency kits to at-risk people with life-threatening illnesses during the coronavirus pandemic.
“They told us they heard our drivers were overloaded and wanted to volunteer to lighten the drivers’ workload,” the charity’s executive director Richard Ayoub told WEHOville. “It’s really amazing. We loved having them and they are the most down-to-earth people.”
The couple made more than 20 deliveries in just one day. One man on the receiving end, Dan Tyrell, told the news outlet, “I thought that tall red-headed guy looked pretty familiar, and that girl was very pretty. Then I saw the large black SUVs with the security guards behind them.”
Despite their private security team, Tyrell called the pair “both nice and very down-to-earth people. They had masks on, and they were dressed down with jeans, but very nice jeans.”
For the latest coronavirus news and updates, follow along at https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus. According to experts, people over 60 and those who are immunocompromised continue to be the most at risk. If you have questions, please reference the CDC and WHO’s resource guides.
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