A Washington, D.C., pastor had the first known case of coronavirus in the D.C. area in early March. He is home and recovering after spending three weeks hospitalized, he told News4 on Tuesday.
The Rev. Timothy Cole, the pastor at Christ Church in Georgetown, was diagnosed with coronavirus earlier this month after returning from an Episcopal church convention in Louisville.
He presided over a Sunday church service March 1, and his symptoms began to worsen later that week.
“Becoming sick like that, and of course many people experience this, is a bit like driving along the highway and you have a broad way to go. You can turn left or right, you could do what you like. And suddenly you’re hit and shifted into this small, dark, narrow backstreet,” Cole said.
“There is no end in sight,” he said.
Hundreds of people who attended the church were told to self-quarantine.
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While in the hospital, Cole’s wife sat on a chair and looked at him through the window of his quarantined room.
Cole's fever finally broke three long weeks later. Seeing the beauty of the outside world again was overwhelming.
“Coming out of that hospital after three weeks, and Lorraine driving me into the Georgetown sunshine with the amazing blossom on the trees, and the color and detail — it was quite overwhelming. It felt very vividly like stepping from a black-and-white movie to a full-color one,” the pastor said with a smile
Cole said he is now home and praying. Praying for us all.
