POTOMAC, Md. — A local family is desperately trying to bring their elderly mom and dad home.
Tung Pi, 79, and Angela Lee of Potomac were on one of the ships hit hardest by the coronavirus crisis. They'd gone on a cruise ahead of their 50th anniversary.
They were onboard the Diamond Princess when it was slammed by COVID-19.
Tung-Pi ended up in respiratory distress, from pneumonia caused by the virus. He was taken off the ship in Japan and put in the hospital.
Angela was flown home and tested positive for the virus. She is now alone, without her family, in a Health and Human Services facility in California.
The couple ended up commemorating a half-century of marriage apart for the first time, talking via FaceTime on an iPad, with Tung Pi in a hospital bed getting oxygen, and Angela scared and lonely in San Carlos, California.
"Everything feels up in the air right now," their daughter JoAnn Lee, a professor of social work at George Mason University, said. "My father's flight is Thursday. We are hoping my mother will be home in the next couple of days, but there are no guarantees. We are very much hoping to have them home this week, but we also realize that is not a certainty."
Lee said Tung-Pi is now recovering and free from the virus. She said he has plane tickets, and is awake and anxious at the hospital and ready to leave.
Lee said her mother's test came back negative on Sunday, but she has yet to be cleared for release from the California facility, and Lee's not sure why.
We've blacked out the couple's faces, in part because they said they are worried about discrimination when they finally get home.