Because my wife was my strong anchor, I could run to the battlefield, not from it. If the tables were turned, wouldn’t we want someone to come? The only thing that made us different from the beautiful patients up there was a diagnosis. “It was difficult to just sit back and watch the problem when we knew I could be a part of the solution. They were well aware of the risks, but firm in their conviction that standing in the gap for others in great need was more important than personal safety and family concerns. It was a life-and-death decision that he and his wife, Shania Merriwether, made together.

Merriwether had willingly left home to help those who most needed help - he signed up for a 21-day -straight stint of 12-hour workdays in a hospital full of highly susceptible and COVID-positive patients. “I came up here to help, and now I might need help. Given the anything-but-normal circumstances, he was forced to acknowledge the reality that he may have contracted COVID. He was not only serving at the epicenter of COVID in the US, he was serving at a time when the death toll there reached its peak. His assignment had been caring for COVID patients on ventilators. Carter Hospital, a long-term care facility in Harlem. Robert Merriwether had left family and home behind in Charlotte to serv e as a registered nurse at the Henry J. But on th at s pring day in 2020, normal circumstances were mere memor ies. Not a b ig u gly d eal - under normal circumstances. He w oke up alone in a hotel room in NYC with a fever of 99.2 d egrees.

Courage by Robert Carter